Etymologically
Log in

dodger

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 01:08. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈdɒd͡ʒ.ə(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /ˈdɑ.d͡ʒɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English dodge + -er, an agent noun from the verb.[2][3][4][5] The verb itself is known only from the 16th century and its origin is uncertain;[2][4] Etymonline suggests a link with a Scottish and northern dialect verb dodd (“to jog”), which Skeat also compared, though the OED finds the sound change unclear.[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who dodges, in early use especially a haggler: 1568, in Thomas Harding's Detection of Sundrie Foule Errours.[2][6] Etymonline and Dictionary.com also date it to the 1560s.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense followed the verb, which in the 16th century meant to go this way and that in speech or action; the noun was later used chiefly of a person who practises artful shifts or evasions.[4][2] The best known example is the Artful Dodger, the young pickpocket in Dickens's Oliver Twist (1837–39).[4] Compounds name the thing evaded, as in draft dodger, tax dodger and fare dodger.[1] In the United States a dodger was a hard-baked corn cake from 1831, usually corn dodger, which Etymonline thinks may have a separate source, comparing the northern dialect noun dodge, a lump;[2][4] in Australian and services' slang it was bread or food (1919).[2][7][8] American printers called a small handbill a dodger from 1884.[2][7] After 1898 it was also a screen on a ship's bridge against spray.[2][9] The Brooklyn baseball club, the Dodgers, was so called from 1900, after trolley dodgers, a nickname for Brooklyn residents.[4] Slang also used the word for a dram of spirits (1859), a clergyman (short for devil-dodger, 1861) and a threepenny bit (1907).[7] In Kent dialect a dodger was a nightcap.[10]

Timeline

  • 1568 – a person who dodges; a haggler.[2][6]
  • 1831 – United States, a hard-baked corn cake.[2][4]
  • 1837–39 – the Artful Dodger, in Dickens's Oliver Twist.[4]
  • 1859 – slang, a dram of spirits.[7]
  • 1884 – United States, a small handbill.[2]
  • 1898 – a screen on a ship's bridge.[2]
  • 1900 – the Brooklyn Dodgers.[4]
  • 1919 – Australian and services' slang, bread, food.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who evades a duty or obligation, or who uses tricks to avoid things; a shifty person: a tax dodger.[6][9][2]
  2. A small handbill or circular.[6][9][2]
  3. A screen of canvas or wood on a ship's bridge, protecting the helmsman or lookouts from spray and weather.[6][9][2]
  4. (US) A corn dodger, a hard-baked cake of cornmeal.[6][2]
  5. (Australia, informal) Food, especially bread.[6][9][2]

Word family

  • draft dodger

Usage notes

The Australian slang adjective dodger, good or excellent, recorded from 1941, is of unknown origin and has a separate source.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  8. ^ The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
  9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)