Daily AncestorPrinter's devil
A printer's devil was the youngest apprentice in a printing shop, who mixed ink, fetched type and did the dirtiest jobs.
The name is usually explained by the ink that blackened the boys' hands and faces; in 1683 the English printer Joseph Moxon wrote that workmen jokingly called them devils. The devil also sorted worn and broken type thrown into the hellbox.
Many later writers began this way, including Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman and Mark Twain. Dictionaries mark the term as dated; it meant an apprentice printer.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Geo. Platt, 14, Printer's devil
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Daily Ancestor. "Printer's devil." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/printers-devil. Last checked 2026-10-10.