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gofer
U.S. colloquial (British English = dogsbody)

- an employee whose duties include running errands

Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Gofer (not to be confused with the animal gopher (a burrowing rodent) combines "go" and "for" as in "to go for something".

Because the American accent makes "for" often sound like "fer" (particularly when spoken with a southern accent), the word developed into gofer instead of gofor.

Today's gofer might not only go fetch things, but might also make copies, clean up the office kitchen, call for a taxi, look something up on Google.

Hollywood mega-director Steven Spielberg started his career in 1964 as a GOFER on the Universal Studios lot. His job was to do whatever the directors, producers and crew told him to do. Often times, this had less to do with movie making and more to do with taking care of personal chores for someone. Nonetheless, he had the opportunity to learn the business from the ground up and eventually became one of the most influential moviemakers of all time.

Brad Pitt's character Cliff Booth is a GOFER for Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

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SYNONYMS

dogsbody, flunky, go-getter, grunt, man/girl Friday, hired help, low person on the totem pole, office boy/girl, lackey

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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO A CONVERSATION

"Remember, a lot of great people started out in life as GOFERS."