ORIGIN OF TERM DOUGHBOY.

New Zealand Tablet, 29 May 1919, Page 21

ORIGIN OF TERM DOUGHBOY.

“A ‘doughboy/ ” says Stars and Stripes, official paper :of the American-! Expeditionary Force, “is an American soldier, any American soldier, infantryman, artilleryman, medical department, signal corps, sharps, officers and men alike, are all called doughboys.” The term “doughboy” dates back to the Civil War, when army wit vims aroused by large globular brass buttons 911 /infantry uniforms. Somebody (he must have been sailor) dubbed 'the buttons “doughboys,” because they, reminded him of the boiled dumplings of raised dough served in ships’ messes and known to all sailors as doughboys; Originally, it referred only to an enlisted r infantry man,, but the A.E.F. applies it to all branches' and all grades of- ? the -service, .