Doughboys?

Factual Questions
1

Why were soldiers called " doughboys "?

2

The buttons on the uniforms were large and round, and resembled doughnuts to some people. So soldiers were called ‘doughboys’
Life was simpler then.

3

The use of the word as a synonym for “soldier” is much older than WWI. It dates to at least 1867 and maybe 1847 (see this site). The original meaning of the word “doughboy” was something like a doughnut or a dumpling, which is what the buttons on some uniforms were supposed to resemble. This etymology is uncertain, especially since the “explanation” postdates the origin of the word by several decades.

this site discusses 2 other possible origins.

4

In his book “War Slang” Paul Dickson writes that the origin of the term is uncertain. I’ll try to summarize some of the theories he cites:

  1. H.L. Menkin claimed the term originated in the Continental Army. Soldiers used white clay to keep the white piping on their uniforms bright. In the rain it ran over the rest of their clothes.

  2. It is a pre-Civil War British term for soldiers.

  3. It came from Texas (presumably during the Spanish-Amereican War), where troops were often seen covered with dust – “adobe.” The term evolved into “doughboy.”

  4. Another Texas theory: one soldier, high and dry, sees another who has been tramping through the white Lone Star mud, and says “Have you been marching through dough?” The term stuck.

  5. A theory from around WWI times: It came from the nickname of an Australian murderer who was called Doughboy. (Lame theory, if you ask me.)

  6. Nicky’s theory, a little more fleshed out: Geo. Custer’s wife wrote that a doughboy was a small round doughnut served to sailors with hash. Early in the Civil War the term was applied to the large globular brass buttons of the infantry uniform. It evolved to mean the soldiers themselves.

  7. During the Peninsular Campaign (Civil War, right?) an infantry outfit ground it own flour at a mill that became known as Doughboy Hill; the soldiers of the outfit, in turn, were called doughboys.

Dickson adds that he has seen many other explanations besides the ones he gave above.

In my opinion, #'s 3 & 6 (Nicky’s) sound like they could be legit. But it’s just an opinion.

If I had my copies of Browser’s Dictionaries I & II, I bet John Ciardi could set the record straight. Alas, they’ve been lent out.

5

I meant the Mexican War, not the Spanish-American one. Really. Honest I did. Really…