Also 4 -ur, 6 -our, 7 -er (-poster). [a. AF. compositour = F. compositeur, ad. L. compositōr-em, agent-n. from compōnĕre, composit-: see COMPONE, COMPOSE.]
† 1. One who composes or settles a dispute, etc.; an umpire, arbiter, peace-maker. Sc. Obs.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 88. Thai trowyt that he, as gud nychtbur, And as freyndsome compositur, Wald hawe Iugyt in lawte.
1527. Ld. Treas. Acc. Sc., in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, I. 272. Þe Bischop of Galloway, ane of the Compositouris at þe said Airis.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. (1822), 4. Thir princes war compositouris of pece.
† 2. One who composes or compiles a literary work. Obs. rare.
c. 1532. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr. (1852), 895. Many … have composed … rules … before that they have ben conynge … The sayd composytours … ben by nature checked, reproued and corrected.
3. Printing. One whose business is to set up type to print from; a type-setter.
1569. Pref. Verse J. Hart’s Orthogr. The compositor to the reader.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 337. If the Compositor faile in the setting of his letters, the Printer that putteth ynke vpon the fourmes, doeth not correct the faultes of the Compositor.
1632. Quarles, Div. Fancies, IV. iii. (1660), 142. The world’s a Printing House … Each Soul is a Composter, of whose faults The Levires are Correctors: Heav’n revises; Death is the common Press.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. vi. 127. By the laws of printing, indeed, a compositor should abide by his copy.
1878. Morley, Diderot, I. 156. Fifty compositors were … setting up a book.
