[Ads-l] Doughboy - alternate explaination and implied antedating

[Peter Reitan]

>>No appearance of the British phrase "gridiron and doughboys" is known to me outside of old slang dictionaries.<<


"Gridiron and dough boys" proudly used by Americans as early as 1832, in the single example I could find outside of slang dictionaries.


It appears in an article responsive to a letter of complaint about an American naval vessel that rendered a 21 gun salute to King Miguel I of Portugual when he passed in a yacht in a Portuguese harbor.  He was later given a 42 gun salute when he visited the ship.  The letter also complained about the fact that the American ship flew the Portuguese flag and the royal ensign while the king was onboard.  The letter writer thought the American officers should have ignored the king, as did the French and English ships in the harbor.  He had ascended to the throne through some illegal maneuvers, and was not considered legitimate.


The writer responding to the complaint supported the American officers' decision to honor him, saying that it was not their place to judge the legitimacy of the crown.  However, they agreed that they should not have flown his flags on an American ship.



>From Niles Register (Baltimore, Maryland), 4th Series, Volume 7, Number 2, September 8, 1832, page 21.

[Excerpt] The Portuguese Tiger. . . . .  The commanders of our vessels of war, unless under instructions, have nothing to do, we think, with deciding between kings de facto and kings de jure, and the proceedings of the British and French naval officers should be no rule for them; but this, at least, we might wish - that the "royal ensign" had not floated at the main!  Let the "gridiorn and dough boys," the stripes and the stars, only, have a place there! [End excerpt]


As for "dough boy" as a nickname for infantry, does "dough foot" confirm or at least support the 1864 explaination of "dough boy" relating to walking or plodding on soft ground?

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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2018 9:56 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Doughboy - alternate explaination and implied antedating

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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Subject:      Re: Doughboy - alternate explaination and implied antedating
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More exx. than you might want in HDAS. Also another, if less colorful,
proposed derivation.

To my knowledge, "the gridiron and doughboys" was a British phrase.

BTW, here is a major antedating of the synonymous "doughfoot," freq. used
by Ernie Pyle in WW2 - and naturally also in HDAS, your one-stop resource
if you don't give a good goddamn about the second half of the alphabet.

Like "dogface," it must have been used in WW1 by very few :

1917 *Every Evening* (Wilmington, Del.) (June 19) 8: Everyone who was a
=E2=80=9Cdough-foot=E2=80=9D at Plattsburg will remember what a Godsend the=
 canteen
was=E2=80=A6after a day=E2=80=99s training.

Derivation: "one who plods; slowpoke". [But infl. by "doughboy."]

1903 *Professional World* (Columbia. Mo.) (Dec. 11) 4:The parrot=E2=80=A6sh=
rieked
=E2=80=9Cdough-foot.=E2=80=9D *1911* *Dayton* [O.] *Herald* (May 24) 12: Ty=
 Cobb stole
three bases,  [but]=E2=80=A6even such a dough-foot as Sam Crawford swiped t=
wo.

No appearance of the British phrase "gridiron and doughboys" is known to me
outside of old slang dictionaries.


 JL




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