slang. Short for SUPER sb.
1824. in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1825), 309. A youthful supernumerary compositor, or ‘gentleman supe’ in a printing establishment.
1885. J. K. Jerome, On the Stage, 59. The other set, the regular bob (sometimes eighteenpence) a-night ‘sūps.’
1903. Farmer & Henley, Slang, Supe,… the superintendent of a station.
