Doughboy

{{short description|Slang for or cultural image of American infantrymen, circa 1914-1942}} {{about|the nickname}} {{Use American English|date=December 2025}} thumb|right|"Over the top" – close-up of a doughboy in full combat dress "'''Doughboy'''" was a popular nickname for the American infantryman during World War I.<ref>{{cite book |author= |title=The American Heritage Desk Dictionary |edition=5th |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanheritage0005unse/page/255 255] |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-547-70813-3 |oclc=768728947 |url=https://archive.org/details/americanheritage0005unse/page/255}}</ref> Though the origins of the term are not certain,<ref name=partridge /> the nickname was still in use as of the early 1940s, when it was gradually replaced by "G.I." as the following generation enlisted in World War II.<ref name=brewer /><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=The Doughboy |publisher=The Infantry School, Camp Benning, Georgia |year=1921 |location=Fort Benning, Georgia |pages=23 |language=English}}</ref>

== Background == === Philology === The origins of the term are unclear. The word was in wide circulation a century earlier in both Britain and America, albeit with different meanings. Horatio Nelson's sailors and the Duke of Wellington's soldiers in Spain, for instance, were both familiar with fried flour dumplings called "doughboys",<ref name=brewer>Evans, Ivor H. (ed.) (1981) ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'' New York: Harper & Row, p.353 {{ISBN|0-06-014903-5}}</ref> the precursor of the modern doughnut. Independently, in the United States, the term had come to be applied to bakers' young apprentices, i.e., "dough-boys". In ''Moby-Dick'' (1851), Herman Melville nicknamed the timorous cabin steward "Doughboy".<ref>Chapter 34ff</ref>

===Average age=== Infantrymen recruited for World War I were mostly teenagers: 'merely kids who didn't look to be a day over sixteen'.<ref name="Hallas">{{cite book |last1=Hallas |first1=James H. |title=Doughboy war : the American Expeditionary Force in World War I |date=2000 |publisher=Stackpole Books |location=Mechanicsburg, PA |isbn=978-0811734677 |page=226 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0LCiOCy7vsC&dq=average+age+of+a+doughboy&pg=PA226 |access-date=9 November 2021}}</ref> The average age of a "doughboy" in World War I was less than 25 years old. Fifty-seven percent of infantrymen were under the age of 25, with some enlisting as young as seventeen.<ref name="Mortenson">{{cite book |last1=Mortenson |first1=Christopher R. |last2=Springer |first2=Paul J. |title=Daily life of U.S. soldiers : from the American Revolution to the Iraq War |date=2019 |publisher=Greenwood |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=978-1440863585 |page=457 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjSZDwAAQBAJ&dq=average+age+of+a+doughboy&pg=PA457 |access-date=9 November 2021}}</ref>

== History == thumb|right|World War I colorized photo of a very young Doughboy

Doughboy as applied to the infantry of the U.S. Army first appears in accounts of the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848,<ref name=partridge>Beale, Paul (ed.) (1989) ''A Concise History of Slang and Unconventional English: From "A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English" by Eric Partridge'' New York: Macmillan. p.134. {{ISBN|9780026053501}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Friends of Fort Caswell Rifle Range |url=https://www.caswellriflerange.com/ |access-date=2025-12-22 |website=Friends of Fort Caswell Rifle Range |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>Chamberlain, Samuel (1965). ''My Confessions: Recollections of a Rogue,'' Austin: Texas State Historical Association. Chamberlain, a horse-mounted Dragoon in the Mexican-American War, wrote in his memoirs years later, "No man of any spirit and ambition would join the 'Doughboys' and go afoot."</ref> without any precedent that can be documented. A number of theories have been put forward to explain this usage: * Cavalrymen used the term to deride foot soldiers, because the brass buttons on their uniforms looked like the flour dumplings or dough cakes called "doughboys",<ref name=brewer /><ref name=smithsonian /> or because of the flour or pipe clay which the soldiers used to polish their white belts.<ref name=smithsonian>Taylor, David A. (March 1998) [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-history-of-the-doughnut-150405177/ "The History of the Doughnut"] ''Smithsonian Magazine''</ref><ref name=origin /> * Observers noticed U.S. infantry forces were constantly covered with chalky dust from marching through the dry terrain of northern Mexico, giving the men the appearance of unbaked dough or the mud bricks of the area known as adobe, with "adobe" transformed to 'dobies' and then further into "doughboy".<ref name=origin>Hanlon, Michael E. [http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/origindb.htm "Origins of 'Doughboy'"] ''Doughboy Center: Stories of the American Expeditionary Force''</ref> * The soldiers' method of cooking field rations of the 1840s and 1850s into doughy flour-and-rice concoctions baked in the ashes of a camp fire. This does not explain why only infantrymen received the appellation.<ref name=origin/>

One explanation offered for the usage of the term in World War I is that female Salvation Army volunteers went to France to cook millions of doughnuts and bring them to the troops on the front line,<ref>Gaimo, Cara (September 18, 2015) [http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-long-sweet-love-affair-between-cops-and-doughnuts "The Sweet, Love Affair Between Cops and Doughnuts"] ''Atlas Obscura''</ref> although this explanation ignores the usage of the term in the earlier war. One jocular explanation for the term's origin was that, in World War I, the doughboys were "kneaded" in 1914 but did not rise until 1917.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/88347794/|title=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 4, 1986 · Page 12|website=newspapers.com|date=4 March 1986 }}</ref>

=== Postwar === Examples from the Interwar and WW2 eras include the 1942 song "Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in Ireland", recorded by Dennis Day, Kenny Baker, and Kay Kyser, among others, the 1942 musical film ''Johnny Doughboy'', and the character "Johnny Doughboy" in ''Military Comics''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://goldenreadingdomain.blogspot.com/2012/02/military-man-johnny-doughboy.html |title=Golden Reading: Military Man: Johnny Doughboy |first=Misty |last=Blogger |date=5 February 2012 |website=goldenreadingdomain.blogspot.com}}</ref>

The term "doughboy" continued to be used by the U.S. Army Infantry Branch into the 1920s. Appearing in the U.S. Army Infantry School class books stating "the title "doughboy" is Infantry property and belongs of right to no other branch, all of which have their own popular nicknames. We are proud of it, and justly resent its misuse."<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=February 2019 |url=https://www.caswellriflerange.com/2019/02/?utm_source |access-date=2025-12-23 |website=Friends of Fort Caswell Rifle Range |language=en-US}}</ref>

Today the "Doughboy Award" (Order of Saint Maurice) is presented by the Army Infantry Branch "to recognize an individual for outstanding contributions to the United States Army Infantry. The award is presented on behalf of all Infantrymen past and present".<ref>{{Cite report |doi=10.21236/ad0419778 |title=EIGHTH ANNUAL ARMY HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING CONFERENCE 16-19 OCTOBER 1962, UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY CENTER AND UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY SCHOOL, FORT BENNING, GEORGIA |last=ARMY RESEARCH OFFICE WASHINGTON DC |date=1962-11-12 |publisher=Defense Technical Information Center |location=Fort Belvoir, VA}}</ref>

== Monuments and memorials == A popular mass-produced sculpture of the 1920s called the ''Spirit of the American Doughboy'' shows a U.S. soldier in World War I uniform.

In September 2024, the National World War I Memorial unveiled a sculpture called ''A Soldier's Journey'' which depicts a single “doughboy” as he leaves home, witnesses death and destruction on the front lines and makes his way back.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-09-13 |title=The National World War I Memorial Is Finally Finished - Washingtonian |url=https://washingtonian.com/2024/09/13/the-national-world-war-i-memorial-is-finally-finished/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |language=en-US}}</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|United States}} * American entry into World War I * Digger – equivalent for Australian and New Zealand soldiers, originated in World War I * Poilu – equivalent term for French soldiers of World War I * Tommy Atkins – equivalent term for British soldiers of World War I

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == {{Div col|colwidth=30em}} * Faulstich, Edith. M. "The Siberian Sojourn" Yonkers, N.Y. (1972–1977) * Gawne, Jonathan. ''Over There!: The American Soldier in World War I'' (1999)- 83 pages, heavily illustrated * Grotelueschen, Mark Ethan. ''The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I'' (2006) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521864348 excerpt and text search] * Gutièrrez, Edward A. ''Doughboys on the Great War: How American Soldiers Viewed Their Military Experience'' (2014) * Hallas, James H. ''Doughboy War: The American Expeditionary Force in World War I'' (2nd ed. 2009) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105946879 online edition]; includes many primary sources from soldiers * Hoff, Thomas. ''US Doughboy 1916-19'' (2005) * Kennedy, David M. ''Over Here: The First World War and American Society'' (1980) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195173996/ excerpt and text search] * Nelson, James Carl. ''The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War'' (2009) * Ranck, [Edwin] Carty. ''The Doughboys' Book'' (1925) * Rubin, Richard ''The Last of the Doughboys: the forgotten generation and their forgotten world war'' {{ISBN|9780547554433}} plus [https://web.archive.org/web/20130726035741/http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/Home/richard-rubin.aspx online webcast presentation of book] * Schafer, Ronald. ''America in the Great War'' (1991) * Skilman, Willis Rowland. ''The A.E.F.: Who They Were, what They Did, how They Did it'' (1920) 231 pp; [https://archive.org/details/aefwhotheywerew00skilgoog  full text online] * Smith, Gene. ''Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing'' (1999), popular biography. * Snell, Mark A. ''Unknown Soldiers: The American Expeditionary Forces in Memory and Remembrance'' (2008) * Thomas, Shipley. ''The History of the A. E. F.'' (1920), 540pp; [https://archive.org/details/historyaef00thomgoog  full text online] * Votow, John. ''The American Expeditionary Forces in World War I'' (2005) - 96 pp; [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1841766224 excerpt and text search] * Werner, Bret. ''Uniforms, Equipment And Weapons of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I'' (2006) * Zieger, Robert. ''America's Great War: World War 1 and the American Experience'' (2000) {{Div col end}}

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}}  * [http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/index.htm The Doughboy Center: The Story of the American Expeditionary Forces] at Worldwar1.com

Category:Infantry Category:Military slang and jargon Category:United States Army personnel of World War I Category:United States Army soldiers