A dogsbody ramble...

Sometimes you hear a word and you have to ask what does that mean and where did it come from? Well, today's word is dogsbody. Dogsbody, I guess we've all felt a little like a dogsbody sometimes - well unless you are royal of course and have so many of them corgi servile types that all you can hear is woofing and panting as they scamper around trying to please you by meeting your every wish and shitting all over your palace.

Dogsbody, from dog +‎ s +‎ body. First used around 1818, it was British navy slang and originally a derogatory reference to describe a type of unappetizing boiled pease pudding served on naval vessels (hence dog's breakfast). The Jolly Jack Tar's felt that it was made of mashed dog meat (whether the actual dog or the offal they generally ate is not really clear) but there you have it m'hearties - so splice my mainbrace and pop into my hammock you rum swigging swinger you. Time passed (cue the big clock spinning graphic) and by the time the 20th century came around it was also applied to low-ranked sailors, and from there to menial servants and worker types generally. 

Sometimes it was called a 'dog robber' - a junior naval officer, or more commonly someone that does drudge work - (a bit like a call centre operative). I have no idea what you might steal from a dog other than a bone or two and it leaves me scratching my head. Mind you, I've often used the term 'rob dog', usually to describe the bloody taxman or the BBC. In America, I guess that a rough equivalent of dogsbody would be a 'gofer', a grunt' or a lackey, but let's park that and concentrate on dogsbody rather than getting sidetracked by other words that need to be researched and explained (yes, I'm a bit OCD about words).

Of course, you can't mention naval matters without talking about the RAF (other forces are also available). In the Second World War, a number of pilots used Dogsbody as their callsign or handle. "Dogsbody calling Blighty. Wilco, Dildo, Milko and chocs away, scramble, scramble, scramble, bandits at three o'clock, I think Ginger just bought it and ended up in the drink, Wingco Bader, banter, banter, banter." The most famous of these banterers was probably Douglas Bader, the RAF fighter pilot who had two tin legs but still managed to shoot down 22 German planes (clank clank) It was derived from his initials D.B. (dashed clever that, no wonder we won the Battle of Britain).

Talking of Dogsbodies, does anyone else remember a rather odd CBBC series from the early nineties called Space Vets? One of the puppet characters was a hat-wearing puppet dog with an American accent called Dogsbody. It was pretty bizarre stuff, a sci-fi sitcom concerning the adventures of a spaceship called The Dispensible, which contained the Intergalactic Animal Health Service, whose aim was to help all manner of alien animals wherever they were in the universe. There were some very odd moments, lots of creative puppetry and costume design, and a very fine cast of humanish actors, which was impressive as the budget was probably about three-bob an episode. Either way, it was up there with Blake's Seven and who needed Red Dwarf when you had this?

Right, that's it. Off to do a spot of Dog's boddying (Spot, get it?). Woof woof woof!