compositor

English

Etymology

From French compositeur, from Latin compositor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəmˈpɒzɪtə(ɹ)/

Noun

compositor (plural compositors)

1. A person who sets type; a typesetter.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

   • 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter IV, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

     All Spaniards, we discovered, knew two English expressions. One was 'O.K., baby', the other was a word used by the Barcelona whores in their dealings with English sailors, and I am afraid the compositors would not print it.

   • 1983, Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge University Press, Second edition, 2005, p. 56:

     However late medieval copyists were supervised — and controls were much more lax than many accounts suggest — scribes were incapable of committing the sort of "standardized" error that was produced by a compositor who dropped the word "not" from the Seventh Commandment and thus created the "wicked" Bible of 1631.

2. One who, or that which, composes or sets in order.

   I work as an image compositor.

3. (computer graphics) A system that puts images together in a buffer (such as individual windows on a desktop) to generate a final display image.

Derived terms

• compositorial
• compositress

Related terms

• compose
• composer
• composite
• composition
• compositionist

Translations

typesetter — see typesetter

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin compositōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kum.pu.ziˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [kom.po.ziˈto]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [kom.po.ziˈtoɾ]

Noun

compositor m (plural compositors, feminine compositora)

1. composer

Related terms

• compondre

Further reading

• “compositor” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “compositor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “compositor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “compositor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Galician

Etymology

From Latin compositor.

Noun

compositor m (plural compositores, feminine compositora, feminine plural compositoras)

1. composer (one who composes music)

Related terms

• compor, compoñer

Further reading

• “compositor”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

Latin

Etymology

compositus, perfect passive participle of compōnō (“to arrange”) +‎ -tor

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /komˈpo.si.tor/, [kɔmˈpɔs̠ɪt̪ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /komˈpo.si.tor/, [komˈpɔːs̬it̪or]

Noun

compositor m (genitive compositōris); third declension

1. a maker, arranger, composer

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	compositor	compositōrēs
genitive	compositōris	compositōrum
dative	compositōrī	compositōribus
accusative	compositōrem	compositōrēs
ablative	compositōre	compositōribus
vocative	compositor	compositōrēs

Related terms

• compositiō

Descendants

• Catalan: compositor
• French: compositeur
• Galician: compositor
• Italian: compositore
• Portuguese: compositor
• Romanian: compozitor
• Spanish: compositor

References

• “compositor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “compositor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin compositōrem.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõ.po.ziˈtoʁ/ [kõ.po.ziˈtoh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõ.po.ziˈtoʁ/ [kõ.po.ziˈtoh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /kõ.po.ziˈtoɾ/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /kõ.po.ziˈtoʁ/ [kõ.po.ziˈtoχ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /kõ.po.ziˈtoɻ/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kõ.pu.ziˈtoɾ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kõ.pu.ziˈtoɾ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kõ.pu.ziˈto.ɾi/

• Rhymes: (Portugal, São Paulo) -oɾ, (Brazil) -oʁ
• Hyphenation: com‧po‧si‧tor

Noun

compositor m (plural compositores, feminine compositora, feminine plural compositoras)

1. composer (one who composes; an author)
2. composer (one who composes music)
3. (music) songwriter

Related terms

• compor

Further reading

• “compositor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin compositor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /komposiˈtoɾ/ [kõm.po.siˈt̪oɾ]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: com‧po‧si‧tor

Noun

compositor m (plural compositores, feminine compositora, feminine plural compositoras)

1. composer

Related terms

• componer

Further reading

• “compositor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10