Boffins

Is the word "boffin" getting a lot more play these days, or am I just noticing it for the first time? Lately it seems as though it's popping up everywhere. I finally gave in and looked up its definition. Evidently it's British and Australian slang for a scientist, but in a somewhat derogatory sense, having some of the same meaning that the American(?) words "egghead" and "four-eyes" do. A search on Google came up with a handful of rather neutral definitions, e.g., that boffins are people engaged in research, particularly technical research (or, in one case, military research). Over at Wikipedia, though, someone has written that, "In the slang of the United Kingdom, boffins are scientists, engineers, and other people who are stereotypically seen as engaged in technical or scientific research. The word conjures up images of older men in thick spectacles and white lab coats working with complicated chemical apparatus." It turns out that I work in a veritable nest of boffins and never knew (my day job is with a scientific research institute)!

Apparently "boffin" is so well-known to British and Australian audiences that it does not need to be explained to them; witness this headline on a story on news.com.au: Boffins create zombie dogs. By the way, I nominate that as the best headline of the year so far, made even grander by the fact that the news story it flags appears not to be a hoax. Read it for yourself.

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