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Interesting article. Depressing to see the word 'boffins' still in use.
by edoloughlin 13y ago
Interesting article. Depressing to see the word 'boffins' still in use.
- mikeash 13y agoI wasn't aware there was anything wrong with that word. Is it derogatory?
- alphakappa 13y agoFrom the description on Wikipedia, it doesn't seem to be a pejorative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin
- nutjob123 13y agoIt has a slightly negative connotation.
- simonwalton 13y agoIndeed. Especially so for children. In British schools in the 80's/90's at least, it was commonly used if you enjoyed class a little too much.
- corin_ 13y agoIn my experience it's actually rarely used negatively (ymmv of course) - I only really hear it when the context is "these people (the boffins) do something about which I don't understand", so it's almost self-deprecating to call them boffins. On the otherhand it's also not particularly positive, either. As an example: Stephen Fry uses it, and he is a.) a geek and b.) not the kind of person to insult people for that kind of thing - when he uses it he always just means that they're people doing something complicated that he doesn't know about.
- enneff 13y agoStephen Fry is incredibly condescending almost constantly, so I wouldn't cite him in defense of the word.
- FatalLogic 13y agoIt's generally used by non-scientists to refer to scientists. People don't tend to use it to refer to themselves (though a few might, in a humorously self-deprecating fashion). It might have a dismissive or mocking connotation, depending on the intention of the person using it. I guess in the worst case, its use could be described as 'othering' https://google.com/search?q=define%3A+othering https://google.com/search?q=define%3A+othering
- atmosx 13y agoEnglish is not my mother tongue. When I reached the word boffins I stopped and opened the OSX dictionary which gave the right perspective... Because I instantly related boffins with buffoons which has a totally different meaning and didn't make any sense to call F1 engineers buffoons ?! It's okay if it comes from Archimedes, Francis Bacon and another 10-15 fellas I guess because it's kind of relative... But if I were an F1 engineer, I would had a hard time accepting such a degradative term from anyone else! ps. Funny how fast all these vivid thoughts crossed my mind in less the 2 seconds.
- KC8ZKF 13y agoHey, the same thing happens with native English speakers. I just heard a radio spot where someone was reprimanded for using the term "pussyfoot" at a meeting. That's nothing, though, compared to this: http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1999_02_02_newyorktimes.html http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1999_02_02_newy...
- nbevans 13y agoDon't be silly. Other than perhaps in a school playground where _any_ word said repeatedly enough can be considered abusive, boffin is not word that anyone can take offence from really.
- FatalLogic 13y agoMany scientists do take offence. http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/jul/26/boffins-backlash-scientists-dont-like-being-called-that http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/jul/2...