Fodder comes from the Old English ‘fodder’ meaning ‘food’. In the past, it was mainly used to refer to the kind of things that cows and other livestock generally ate – hay, straw, etc. Common sense suggests that the expression cannon fodder should mean ‘food for the cannon’. During a battle, what is it that people who operate a cannon expect the heavy piece of artillery to do? They want it to kill or seriously injure as many enemy soldiers as possible.
The expression cannon fodder was first used to refer to soldiers who were thought to be expendable; as they were mostly inexperienced in the art of warfare, they were considered unimportant. The officers that these individuals reported to used them as sacrificial lambs; they were often sent into situations where the odds were heavily stacked against them. Many paid the price by becoming fodder for enemycannons – they were either killed or badly wounded in battle.
The young soldiers who were ordered to charge, soon became cannon fodder.
Most of the young boys who went from our village served as nothing more than cannon fodder.
The expression has acquired a figurative meaning, and is now frequently heard being used in contexts other than the military. A person who can be easily exploited is labelled cannon fodder.
For years, the media have been using the veteran actor’s links with the underworld as cannon fodder.
Under no circumstances will this company be using children as cannon fodder.
By the way, the ‘fod’ in fodder rhymes with ‘god’, ‘pod’ and ‘mod’, and the following ‘er’ sounds like the ‘a’ in ‘china’. The word is pronounced ‘FO-de’ with the stress on the first syllable.
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