boffin
noun, informal (chiefly British)

- a person engaged in scientific or technical research

- a person with knowledge or a skill considered to be complex or arcane

- a scientist who is considered to know a lot about science and not to be interested in other things

Oxford Dictionaries / The Cambridge Dictionary

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WORD ORIGIN

During World War II, “boffin” was applied with some affection to scientists and engineers working on new military technologies. It was particularly associated with the members of the team that worked on radar at Bawdsey Research Station under Sir Robert Watson-Watt, but also with computer scientists like Alan Turing, aeronautical engineers like Barnes Wallis, and the scientists of the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development.

The conception of boffins as war-winning researchers lends the term a more positive connotation than related terms such as nerd, egghead, or geek.

The origins and etymology of boffin are otherwise obscure. Linguist Eric Partridge proposed the term derived from Nicodemus Boffin, a character who appears in the novel ‘Our Mutual Friend’ by Charles Dickens, who is described there as a “very odd-looking old fellow indeed”.

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THE OLDEST PROFESSION

An engineer, a physicist, and a computer scientist were discussing what was the oldest profession.

The engineer claimed priority. “Look at all that matter engineered into amazing constructs like galaxies, stars, and planets.”

The physicist disagreed. “Before there were planets, the matter had to be made from chaos. Physics is responsible for all the quarks, gluons, photons, and electrons.”

The computer scientist coughed modestly. “Ah, but where do you think the chaos came from?”

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SYNONYMS

- a person who is highly intelligent, sometimes in an awkward way:

alpha geek, BOFFIN, boy/girl wonder, brainbox, brainiac, brains, bright spark, clever clogs, double-dome, egghead, Einstein, geek, highbrow, nerd, pointy-head, polymath, propeller head, pundit, rocket scientist, walking encyclopedia, whiz(z), whiz kid, wizard, wonk, wunderkind

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Computer-BOFFINS were working round the clock to get our website up and running again.”

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

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and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40