A dogsbody, dog's body, or less commonly dog robber is someone who does menial or drudge work.''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', 3rd edition, 2010
''s.v.''
/ref> Originally, in the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, a dogsbody was a semi-sarcastic colloquialism for a

junior officer Junior officer, company officer or company grade officer refers to the lowest operational commissioned officer category of ranks in a military or paramilitary organization, ranking above non-commissioned officers and below senior officers. D ...

or midshipman. A

batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

has a similar function. A rough American equivalent would be a package-handler,

gofer A gofer, go-fer or gopher is an employee who specializes in the delivery of specific items to their superior(s). Examples of these items include a cup of coffee, a tool, a tailored suit, or a car. Outside of the business world, the term is use ...

, grunt,Dogsbody definition
/ref> lackey, or workhorse.

History

The Royal Navy used dried

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

s boiled in a bag (

pease pudding Pease pudding, also known as pease porridge, is a savoury pudding dish made of boiled legumes, typically split yellow peas, with water, salt and spices, and often cooked with a bacon or ham joint. A common dish in the north-east of England ...

) as one of their staple foods in the early 19th century.

Sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

s nicknamed this item "dog's body". In the early 20th century, junior officers and

midshipmen A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afric ...

who performed jobs that more senior officers did not want to do began to be called "dogsbodies". The term became more common in non-naval usage , referring to people who were stuck with rough work. The term "dogsbody" has not always been derogatory, with a number of people deliberately using it as their callsign or handle. The most famous of these is probably

Douglas Bader Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, (; 21 February 1910 – 5 September 1982) was a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War. He was credited with 22 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared ...

, who was an RAF fighter pilot during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.''Reach for the Sky'', Paul Brickhill

References

Military terminology {{Slang-stub