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I'm surprised that Spectrum is using "boffin" in their headline. IEEE is American, and "boffin" is rarely used in American English --- although it seems like i
by nkurz 12y ago
I'm surprised that Spectrum is using "boffin" in their headline. IEEE is American, and "boffin" is rarely used in American English --- although it seems like it's been gradually increasing in popularity over the last few years. What exactly does "boffin" connote, and why is IEEE using it here?
I've never liked the word, but maybe (as an American) I don't understand the connotation correctly. I group it with "nerd" and "geek", which are originally negative slang that have been more recently adopted with pride by their targets. But I don't expect that Spectrum would run a headline quoting "Google's Geek" or "Nokia's Nerd".
- deeviant 12y agoThe term seems to be mainly linked to news outlets, but I for some reason find it maddening. Brits, at least some that I know, like to point out the particularities of American English (and I would admit I love the English English pronunciation of "aluminium"), but I want to stab somebody when I hear the world "fondleslab" or boffin.
- narrator 12y agoI think the reason they used it is that it starts with "B" as does "Baidu" and thus it adds a bit of Dr. Seuss like whimsy to the headline. Boffin has a very positive connotation in British English. It's connotation is an eccentric, extremely smart, almost wizardly scientist. Think "Doc" in Back to the Future. "Boffin continued, in this immediate postwar period, to carry its wartime connotations: a modern-day wizard who labours in secret to create incomprehensible devices of great power."[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin