See boffin in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
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"ref": "[1942 February 3, Henry T[homas] Tizard, “Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. Luncheon.”, in Journal of the Institute of Petroleum, volume 28, number 219, London: The Institute of Petroleum, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-09-30, page 58:",
"text": "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?”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "1991, R[obert] Hanbury Brown, “Radar and the Battle at Night”, in Boffin: A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Taylor & Francis Group, →ISBN, page 57:",
"text": "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, […]",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2004 September, Nicole Dyer, “Rebirth of the Boffin”, in Mark Jannot, editor, Popular Science, volume 265, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Time4 Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 160, columns 2–3:",
"text": "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.",
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"glosses": [
"An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research."
],
"id": "en-boffin-en-noun-leNWM8f7",
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"_dis1": "96 2 2",
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"roman": "hetazotoġ",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "հետազոտող"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 2 2",
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"roman": "gitnakan",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "գիտնական"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 2 2",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "科學家"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 2 2",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "kēxuéjiā",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
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"_dis1": "96 2 2",
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"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "inssi"
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"word": "სწავლული"
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"word": "scienziato"
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"alt": "かがくしゃ",
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"roman": "kagakusha",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "科学者"
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"word": "bilim adamı"
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"ref": "1995, John Abraham, “Organizational Differentiation and Polarization: Setting, Social Class and Pupil Values”, in Divide and School: Gender and Class Dynamics in Comprehensive Education, London, Bristol, Pa.: The Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 55:",
"text": "— 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.",
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{
"ref": "1995, Bob Turnbull, “Corporate Video”, in Tom Jeffrey, editor, Film Business: A Handbook for Film Producers, 2nd edition, North Ryde, N.S.W.: AFTRS Publications, published 1998, →ISBN, page 35:",
"text": "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, […]",
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"an intellectual; a smart person."
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"(loosely) an intellectual; a smart person."
],
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},
{
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{
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{
"word": "intelligent person"
}
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"broadly",
"informal"
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}
],
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"ipa": "/ˈbɒfɪn/",
"tags": [
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},
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɑfɪn/",
"tags": [
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],
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{
"_dis1": "2 49 49",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "(informal) person with specialized knowledge or skills",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "intello"
},
{
"_dis1": "2 49 49",
"code": "es",
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"sense": "(informal) person with specialized knowledge or skills",
"word": "especialista"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Our Mutual Friend",
"The New York Times"
],
"word": "boffin"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English terms with unknown etymologies",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɒfɪn",
"Rhymes:English/ɒfɪn/2 syllables",
"Terms with Armenian translations",
"Terms with Czech translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with Georgian translations",
"Terms with Icelandic translations",
"Terms with Italian translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Terms with Turkish translations",
"Terms with Vietnamese translations",
"en:People"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "astro-boffin"
},
{
"english": "possibly related",
"word": "boff"
},
{
"word": "boffinery"
},
{
"word": "boffinry"
},
{
"word": "boffinish"
},
{
"word": "boffinism"
},
{
"word": "boffiny"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"title": "Origin unknown"
},
"expansion": "Origin unknown",
"name": "unknown"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Origin unknown; a number of possible etymologies have been suggested, but no conclusive evidence exists.\nOne strong theory conjectures a connection from the \"Mr. Boffins\" of English novels, such as in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "boffins",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "boffin (plural boffins)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"bof‧fin"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "mad scientist"
},
{
"word": "egghead"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"Australian English",
"British English",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Irish English",
"New Zealand English"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "[1942 February 3, Henry T[homas] Tizard, “Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. Luncheon.”, in Journal of the Institute of Petroleum, volume 28, number 219, London: The Institute of Petroleum, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-09-30, page 58:",
"text": "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?”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1991, R[obert] Hanbury Brown, “Radar and the Battle at Night”, in Boffin: A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Taylor & Francis Group, →ISBN, page 57:",
"text": "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, […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2004 September, Nicole Dyer, “Rebirth of the Boffin”, in Mark Jannot, editor, Popular Science, volume 265, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Time4 Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 160, columns 2–3:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research."
],
"links": [
[
"engineer",
"engineer"
],
[
"scientist",
"scientist"
],
[
"engage",
"engage"
],
[
"technological",
"technological"
],
[
"military",
"military"
],
[
"research",
"research#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal) An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "backroom boy"
}
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"British",
"Ireland",
"New-Zealand",
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"Australian English",
"British English",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Irish English",
"New Zealand English"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1995, John Abraham, “Organizational Differentiation and Polarization: Setting, Social Class and Pupil Values”, in Divide and School: Gender and Class Dynamics in Comprehensive Education, London, Bristol, Pa.: The Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 55:",
"text": "— 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.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1995, Bob Turnbull, “Corporate Video”, in Tom Jeffrey, editor, Film Business: A Handbook for Film Producers, 2nd edition, North Ryde, N.S.W.: AFTRS Publications, published 1998, →ISBN, page 35:",
"text": "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, […]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward."
],
"links": [
[
"specialized",
"specialized#Adjective"
],
[
"knowledge",
"knowledge"
],
[
"skill",
"skill"
],
[
"socially",
"socially"
],
[
"awkward",
"awkward"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal, by extension) A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "brain"
},
{
"word": "brainiac"
},
{
"word": "egghead"
},
{
"word": "intelligent person"
}
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"British",
"Ireland",
"New-Zealand",
"broadly",
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"Australian English",
"British English",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Irish English",
"New Zealand English"
],
"glosses": [
"A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.",
"an intellectual; a smart person."
],
"links": [
[
"specialized",
"specialized#Adjective"
],
[
"knowledge",
"knowledge"
],
[
"skill",
"skill"
],
[
"socially",
"socially"
],
[
"awkward",
"awkward"
],
[
"intellectual",
"intellectual#Noun"
],
[
"smart",
"smart#Adjective"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal, by extension) A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.",
"(loosely) an intellectual; a smart person."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "brain"
},
{
"word": "brainiac"
},
{
"word": "egghead"
},
{
"word": "intelligent person"
}
],
"tags": [
"Australia",
"British",
"Ireland",
"New-Zealand",
"broadly",
"informal"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɒfɪn/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɑfɪn/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "EN-AU ck1 boffin.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/af/EN-AU_ck1_boffin.ogg/EN-AU_ck1_boffin.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/EN-AU_ck1_boffin.ogg"
},
{
"audio": "En-au-boffin.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/51/En-au-boffin.ogg/En-au-boffin.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/En-au-boffin.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɒfɪn"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "hy",
"lang": "Armenian",
"roman": "hetazotoġ",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "հետազոտող"
},
{
"code": "hy",
"lang": "Armenian",
"roman": "gitnakan",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "գիտնական"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "科學家"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "kēxuéjiā",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "科学家"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "výzkumník"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"informal",
"masculine"
],
"word": "vědátor"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "techneut"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "propellipää"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "inssi"
},
{
"code": "ka",
"lang": "Georgian",
"roman": "sc̣avluli",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "სწავლული"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "vísindarannsóknarmaður"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "scienziato"
},
{
"alt": "かがくしゃ",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "kagakusha",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "科学者"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "erudít",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "эруди́т"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "učónyj",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "учёный"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "cientifico"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "bilim adamı"
},
{
"code": "vi",
"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "(informal) engineer or scientist",
"word": "nhà nghiên cứu"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "(informal) person with specialized knowledge or skills",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "intello"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "(informal) person with specialized knowledge or skills",
"word": "especialista"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Our Mutual Friend",
"The New York Times"
],
"word": "boffin"
}
Download raw JSONL data for boffin meaning in English (11.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.