From: julie@pascal.org   
      
   On Monday, September 1, 2014 3:37:51 PM UTC-6, William Vetter wrote:   
   > On Monday, September 1, 2014 8:02:05 AM UTC-4, Jacey Bedford wrote:   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > > as well as discovering that there is no word in the USA equivalent to    
   >    
   > >    
   >    
   > > the British 'boffin'. (We ended up with 'scientist' but that really    
   >    
   > >    
   >    
   > > doesn't cover it.)   
   >    
   > >    
   >    
   > If you mean boffin in the sense of research technician, there is.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > I've heard some scientists in the US take a superior posture toward graduate   
   students, technicians, experimentalists or any sort of scientist at any level   
   who is in the role of actually carrying out scientific research with their own   
   hands, and refer    
   to them as "grunts."  The implication is that they are losers who have been   
   passed over for promotion to a managerial or administrative role, or possibly   
   that their educational pedigrees are are inferior, or generally that they are   
   just losers because    
   they are doing research instead of handling money.  It may or may not be seen   
   as deprecative by the person who uses it, like calling another writer a   
   wannabe.  It is more likely to be seen as insulting by the person it is   
   applied to.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > A similar phrase, that I have only heard once, is "lab lackey," which is   
   definitely insulting.   
      
   That's weird, William.    
      
   I'd agree (without looking it up) that the meaning of "boffin" is essentially   
   "applied scientist", the person who makes things go.  Perhaps closer to an   
   engineer. Not the assistant, but the spooky fellow with a strangle-hold on   
   reality. I've never even *   
   imagined* it as having any sort of negative connotation.     
      
   I think of "boffin" a bit like "magician."     
      
   I was going to suggest "guru" as a word we use here, but it's wrong also in   
   the same ways because a guru doesn't have grease under the nails and a boffin   
   does.   
      
   -Julie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)