dogsbody: someone who does boring, menial tasks. According to a word history, this term was not frequently used until around 1910. This British slang term seemed to have originated in the Royal Navy, and referred to a junior officer responsible for unimportant tasks.

In Ulysses, the term only occurs five times, and only four in the reading we’ve done so far. The first time it is used condescendingly by Buck to describe Stephen, and the second occurs almost immediately after, when Stephen internalizes the term and refers to himself as a dogsbody. The final two instances occur in episode three as Stephen watches a dog sniff the carcass of another dog. Interestingly in this instance, the term is actually used to describe the body of the dead dog, and follows the terms “dogskull” and “dogsniff”. Thus in the first two instances, it is used in the denotative definition, but in the last two, it used like many of Joyce’s other combined words and literally means the body of a dog.

Buck uses this term to call attention to Stephen’s need of appropriate clothing and secondhand clothes, which seems to be an incorrect use of the word. A few passages later, Stephen looks in a mirror and seems slightly repulsed at his face, thinking “Who chose this face for me? This dogsbody to rid of vermin” (Joyce 3). He seems to internalize Buck’s insult, but again does not use the term in its dictionary definition. In Ulysses, “dogsbody” seems to be an insulting term for someone who appears to be of a lower class, a status which is marked by lack of fancy clothing and an association with pests.