subs. (printers’).—A compositor. [An abbreviated form of ‘companion’ now peculiar to compositors, but originally applied to pressmen who work in couples, as well as to compositors who work in a ‘companionship,’ or SHIP (q.v.).] GALLEY-SLAVE (q.v.) is a variant; so are ASS (q.v.) and DONKEY (q.v.). Cf., PIG.
1870. The Sportsman, 17 Dec. ‘A Chapel Meeting.’ I stood before the world a journeyman COMP.
1886. Tit-Bits, 31 July, p. 252. At provincial newspaper offices and other establishments applications for work from travelling COMPS are frequent.
1888. W. BLADES, in Notes and Queries, 7 S., vi., 365. The printers who work together in one room are to this day called COMPS.
