dogie

Etymology

Unknown. Possibly an abbreviation of dough-guts, the pot bellied appearance of a malnourished calf. Possibly the transliteration of the slang word dobie/dobe/doby, pejoratively meaning inferior. Since dogie and dobie in reference to an orphaned calf both appeared in print around the same time (1880-1888), it is possible that dogie is the original and dobie is the transliteration.

noun

1. (US, regional, colloquial) A motherless calf in a range herd of cattle; a calf separated from its cow.
   When she was a child, her father often gave her orphaned calves to look after, and every so often, she would fold the grown ones in with the steers when they were shipped off to Fort Worth. She made enough money off her dogies to make investments in stocks […] 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 49