cannon fodder vs fodder

cannon fodder

noun
  • Military forces considered to be expendable. 

  • Artillery ammunition. 

  • Any group of contestants that have no hope of success. 

fodder

noun
  • People considered to have negligible value and easily available or expendable. 

  • Food for animals; that which is fed to cattle, horses, and sheep, such as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc. 

  • A load: various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities, generally around 1000 kg. 

  • The text to be operated on (anagrammed, etc.) within a clue. 

  • Tracing paper. 

  • Stuff; material; something that serves as inspiration or encouragement, especially for satire or humour. 

verb
  • To feed animals (with fodder). 

How often have the words cannon fodder and fodder occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )