boffin
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Origin unknown; a number of possible etymologies have been suggested, but no conclusive evidence exists.
One strong theory conjectures a connection from the "Mr. Boffins" of English novels, such as in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.
Inflected forms:
form: boffins
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
Ireland
New-Zealand
UK
informal
examples: In fact, a fighting friend of mine said that he could hardly walk in any direction in this war without tumbling over a scientist who had got in the way. In the Royal Air Force, where the concentration of scientists is perhaps greatest, they have a pet name for them. They call them “Boffins.” Why, I do not know. I said to a young friend of mine in the Air Force, “Why do you call scientists ‘Boffins’?” He said, “I don’t know. What else would you call them?”
With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer.
An essential difference between a boffin and a back room boy, as [Robert] Watson-Watts points out, is that the boffin does not stay in the back room but emerges to poke his nose into other peoples[’] business. It is quite wrong to use the word ‘boffin’ simply to describe a scientist or a technician; a boffin is essentially a middleman, a bridge between two worlds, […]
He devoted six years to building the probe and, breaking with boffin tradition, transformed himself into an extroverted fundraiser to sell it to a public and government largely indifferent to space exploration. […] In fact, he's still busily rallying support for Beagle 2’s successor. Will he succeed? Can a lone boffin maintain a nation’s appreciation for exploration? [Colin] Pillinger could single-handedly determine whether the boffin remains a modest backroom boy or claims a lasting spot in the limelight.
gloss: A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
Ireland
New-Zealand
UK
broadly
informal
examples: — Well, last year I used to have a friend Charley [Charley was in the top sets for English, mathematics and French] but this year he doesn't speak to me any more and every time I see him he's hanging around with boffins like. When I go round to his house, now and again, he's always got his 'O' level and 'A' level books open and he's always concentrating on his work. Hanging around with boffins. / — What are boffins? / — People who work. Stay in all the time. Never go out, go down the town or nothin. And always get good letters home and pats on the back by teachers.
The opportunities for producers in the interactive multimedia environment are boundless. The boffins writing software programs for interactive multimedia will not be the producers of corporate communications. They need today's producers to bring their communication skills to the interactive domain, […]
gloss: A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
Ireland
New-Zealand
UK
broadly
informal
Related words: mad scientist
egghead
Derived words: astro-boffin
boff
boffinery
boffinry
boffinish
boffinism
boffiny
Translations:
lang: Czech
word: koumák
lang: Czech
word: bedna
lang: French
word: intello
lang: Spanish
word: especialista