Dogsbody

Does anyone have any idea where this expression came from - for those who are given the menial tasks of this world? I've looked in the Archives and found no answer as to the origin.
Have a good 2001!

I am away from my library at the moment. If memory serves, I found the expression "dogsbody" in a book of nautical terms and it referred to a "lowly" meal served to underlings. I'll post again after I've checked my references.

DOGSBODY - "A not very popular dish aboard ship which consisted of passengers' leftovers mixed with ships biscuits and reheated. A meal without much status now applied to those who once ate it." (From "Salty Dog Talk: Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions" by Bill Beavis and Richard G. McCloskey, Sheridan House, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., 1995; first published in Great Britain, 1983.) Another source: ".noun orig nautical. A junior person, esp. one to whom a variety of menial tasks is given; a drudge, a general utility person.(compare) earlier nautical slang sense, dried peas boiled in a cloth." (From The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang by John Ayto and John Simpson, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992.)

It sort of reminds me of the nautical reference to balogna as horsecock. always raised a groan at the prospects of cold cuts after a hard day.