From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   From Chambers Thesaurus:   
      
   boffin   
   noun   
   scientist, expert, engineer, designer, planner, inventor, mastermind, genius,   
   brain, intellect, intellectual, thinker    
   colloq. egghead, wizard, backroom-boy; N American brainiac   
      
   From New Oxford English dictionary:   
      
   bof·fin /'bäfin/ ♫    
   ► noun informal, chiefly Brit. a person engaged in scientific or technical   
   research: a computer boffin.   
   • a person with knowledge or a skill considered to be complex, arcane, and   
   difficult: he had a reputation as a tax boffin, a learned lawyer.   
      
   → bof·fin·y adjective   
      
   – origin World War II: of unknown origin.   
      
   Chambers Dictionary:   
      
   boffin /bof'in/ (orig milit sl)    
   noun   
   A research scientist, esp one employed by the armed forces or government   
   Any expert or intellectual   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)