From: nicky.matthews@btinternet.com   
      
   On Tuesday, September 2, 2014 12:00:24 AM UTC+1, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) wrote:   
   > On 9/1/14, 5:37 PM, William Vetter wrote:   
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   > > On Monday, September 1, 2014 8:02:05 AM UTC-4, Jacey Bedford wrote:   
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   > >> as well as discovering that there is no word in the USA equivalent to   
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   > >> the British 'boffin'. (We ended up with 'scientist' but that really   
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   > >> doesn't cover it.)   
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   > > If you mean boffin in the sense of research technician, there is.   
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   > 	The context in which I've heard "Boffin" seems to imply "really bright   
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   > scientist guys who're doing this awesome work we're reporting on", or,   
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   > in a negative context, "crazy scientists doing this loony stuff".   
   >   
   Yeah it's just a lab nerd - clever but obscure - not on the same level as the   
   rest of us.   
   it was the WW2 boffins in the MOD who came up with some of the weird and   
   wonderful devices employed at that time including the code breaking at   
   Bletchley Park.   
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