Dogsbody c. 1930, 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, who was an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. Dogsbody A dogsbody, or less commonly dog robber in the Royal Navy, is a junior officer, or more generally someone who does drudge work. A rough American equivalent would be a "gofer," "grunt" or "lackey". The Royal Navy used dried peas and eggs boiled in a bag (pease
Dogsbody (novel) Dogsbody (novel) Dogsbody is a 1975 children's novel by Diana Wynne Jones. Sirius, guardian luminary of the Dog Star, is being convicted of murdering a fellow "luminary" and of losing the Zoi, an extremely powerful cosmic tool that he has allowed to fall to a minor planet, Earth. He is sentenced to spend one lifetime in the form of dog, a native animal; if he can recover the Zoi within that dog's lifetime, he will be allowed to return to his former status as Sirius. If he does not, he will simply die at the end of his dog's life.