Origin and Definition

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All men are created equal but not considered equal, when it comes to courtships. Intense competitions led many to deem their successes in a romantic relationship an applaudable accomplishment in life, something to boast about via dogfooding. To shower dog food, or to dogfood in short, is to deliberately display the affections between two married or unmarried lovers with excessive pride and self-satisfaction in front of single people. One may describe the scene of mushy couples hugging, touching, kissing, cuddling, groping, licking, nuzzling, stroking, caressing (any physical intimacy except actual sex) as dogfooding.

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The literal meaning of to dogfood makes no sense without context. The origin of dogfood is unrelated to dogfooding, which, in product management, is the use of a newly developed product or service by a company’s staff to test it before it is made available to customers; rather, dogfood arose from bachelors or bachelorettes referring to themselves as dogs, a symbolism for inferior social status used as a self-deprecating joke in an ironic yet humorous way that mocks the singles. To shower dog food, the delicate food eaten by domesticated dogs, on starving dogs, those lusting for romance, is thus a cruel behavior since the dogs never get the dog food, the romance, they crave.

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The expression to dogfood is used often by the singles, though implicitly degrading themselves by admitting their loneliness and yearning for love, to tease the lovers or simply acknowledge his/her presence, as most dogfooding couples either overlooked or choose to ignore the existence of the third party. A couple may be ridiculed by the third person, “Cut the dogfooding!”, even if the couple has no intention of showing off their relationship.

 

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Grammatical Function

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Dogfood is the mash of two nouns dog and food to make a transitive verb in form (it requires an object, a victim, to receive the action); however, its function as a verb is flexible. It can be an ordinary verb in both the active form — “The notorious couple dogfooded several passers-by last night.” — and the passive form — “Poor old Sam was dogfooded by his ex and her boyfriend on his way home.” The use of passive form, however, far exceeds the use of the active form, because rarely was the fundamental verb form used in narration or objective description; most everyday usages are the rantings to a friend, which is often delivered in passive form.

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Dogfood can also be a participle that functions as adjectives to pattern with nouns as modifiers. It can act as both the present participle — “Thou shalt banish the ever-dogfooding twosome.” — and the past participle — “Dogfooded by the never-ending Instagram posts of honeymoons, Jonathan was near a breakdown.” It can be a gerund that functions as a noun: “Dogfooding is a sin.” It can be an infinitive that functions as an adjective: “Now is not the best time to dogfood the man who just got dumped.” It can even be a nominative absolute that functions as a noun phrase: “Lovers dogfooding, I am drowning in a room full of pheromones.”

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Occasionally, the verb to dogfood is nominalized into dogfood, which refers to any physical intimacy that is purposed to flaunt; however, such uses are limited, or rather unexplored, as the stress of this slang is on the action, the cringing yet vivid happenings. Most usages of this slang, consequently, appear in verbal writings, which lighten and shorten the sentence by minimizing the number of nouns used and speeding up the pace, than in nominal writings. The noun form dogfood only shows up in restricted structures, such as a twisted aphorism serving as a humorous one-liner that sounds apparently deep but is actually a trash talk: “An eye for an eye; a scoop of dogfood for a scoop of dogfood.” Within such structures, the noun form dogfood behaves exactly like the gerund dogfooding — it can be a predicate noun, an object of preposition, an appositive, a direct object, or a subject — except the gerund stresses more on the action, the physical activities, of dogfooding.

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As a transitive verb, to dogfood is most often found, out of the three common sentence patterns for transitive verbs, in S-V-O sentences. Given that they are succinct and straightforward, S-V-O sentences allow swift application of imperatives, in which most daily uses of to dogfood lie: “Don’t you ever dogfood me!” Still, this slang does not necessarily function as a verb even in imperative sentences, though it’s mostly found as a verb; it can really be adaptable: “Let’s not get near the dogfooding couple.” Be that as it may, this slang, both in verb and noun form, always live within a larger sentence and is never uttered independently, at least no one had ever pointed to a stroking couple and shrieked “Dogfood!”

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Rhetorical Context and Demographics

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Dogfood is an internet slang. It was first coined by social media influencers in 2014 as a supplement to another internet slang dogs, the singles. Being an internet slang allows dog and dogfood to be broadly advertised in both the virtual world and the real world. Such fashion empowered the use of dog and, in turn, dogfood to transcend socioeconomic and gender differences: all genders can refer to themselves as dogs if single, and dogfood can be used to describe the physical intimacies between lovers of any gender.

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As an infant slang that hadn’t been around for more than 8 years, dogfood is popular among youngsters with an age ranging from 17 to 25, lads and lasses who gradually begin to fancy or develop a romantic relationship; however, the characteristics of internet slang stretched the age group. Since the internet enabled any public remarks to remain anonymous, those that felt inappropriate to use slangs from younger generations in the real world can now use them extensively without peer pressure. The users of dogfood on the internet thus range from 17 to 35 in age. Elders above this range may likely take to shower dog food on a literal meaning, which will perhaps only be used in a literature composition to create imagery: “Relishing mothering stray lives, the lassie goes to the park every morning, showering the dog food over a kennel of stray dogs.”

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This slang is commonly used in Chinese-speaking countries such as Taiwan, China, and Malaysia, since it is, after all, a translated slang from Chinese. Immigrants with an Asian language background may also be aware of this slang but may not frequently use it; instead, they may be more familiar with PDA’s (Public Displays of Affection) or lovey-dovey couple that is similar in meaning.

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All three slangs refer to essentially the same idea — affectionate and romantic couples exhibiting physical interactions in public; however, unlike PDA’s that objectively marks the certain kind of behavior and, therefore, possesses either a neutral or, sometimes, negative connotation or lovey-dovey that is used when the third person admires or adores the cute couple and, thus, possesses a positive connotation, dogfood is open-ended. It can convey either a positive or negative connotation depending on the intention of the user. For example, the fan of a newly married celebrity couple checking out their recent tweet may acclaim, “Look at their sugary dogfooding, how delicious (how cute) is that!” On the other hand, a cynical bachelor looking at the same tweet may criticize, “I am disgusted by this dogfood. Don’t they have better things to do in life?” Dogfood holds a more malleable undertone when compared to PDA’s and lovey-dovey; furthermore, when carrying a negative connotation, dogfood amplifies and emphasizes the pain and loneliness of the singles, usually the speaker, that neither the two is able to achieve.

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Notwithstanding how pliable the use of to dogfood can be, it can never be used to describe one’s own dogfooding. Such usage in first-person will still be grammatically correct — “My girlfriend and I dogfooded the 30th single person we meet today just for fun.” — but nobody uses it. Not just because it sounds eccentric, it is simply mean, evil, and socially intolerable. To dogfood is, hence, always restricted to third-persons.

 

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Longevity

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Dogfood quickly gained popularity on the internet in a short period of time. Its future in reaching a wider acceptance is bright; however, its origin and translated meaning may still confine it to the Sinophone zone, within the cultural and language barrier. The Anglosphere may still stick to PDA’s and lovey-dovey for they deliver the same effect. It is, therefore, very difficult, if not impossible, for dogfood to earn its place at an English dictionary.

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