From: john@jfeldredge.com   
      
   On Wed, 03 Sep 2014 06:18:49 -0700, David Harmon wrote:   
      
   > On Tue, 02 Sep 2014 03:11:42 +0100 in rec.arts.sf.composition, Jacey   
   > Bedford  wrote,   
   >>My (American) editor didn't think boffin was an American word and asked   
   >>me to change it. Oh dear.   
   >   
   > It is definitely not an American word.  I see it only in British tabloid   
   > journalism headlines.  I take it as yet another British way of calling   
   > me nigger.   
      
   You really have the meaning wrong, in this case. It is (possibly   
   obsolete) British slang for a technical expert.   
      
   I am American, and learned the term "boffin" from reading British novels,   
   back in the late 1970s.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)