Antedating of "boffin"

[Laurence Horn]

On Jun 12, 2014, at 10:32 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:

> OED not only "refuses to even speculate about the origin" but goes further: "Etymology:  Origin unknown. Numerous conjectures have been made about the origin of the word but all lack foundation." This seems more dismissive than strictly necessary. Or perhaps less than necessary and sufficient. If the origin is unknown, pray tell, how may one know that all conjectures (those that made it to OED?--whatever they may be) all lack foundation?
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

What rankled me was their unwillingness to even impart information about those unfounded conjectures, which they do in other cases.  It's as if they're saying these speculations, lively though I'm sure they are, are proprietary, and only OED staffers get to giggle about them.

LH

> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Laurence Horn
> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2014 9:51 AM
>
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Antedating of "boffin"
>
> It might be a bit confusing, given the range of meanings.  OED takes us from sense 2:
>
> 2. A person engaged in ‘back-room’ scientific or technical research.The term seems to have been first applied by members of the Royal Air Force to scientists working on radar.
>
> to sense 3:
>
> Brit. colloq. In weakened use: an intellectual, an academic, a clever person; an expert in a particular field; esp. such a person perceived as lacking practical or social skills.
>
> The extended sense seems more like "geek" or "nerd" than "scientist".  And the OED refuses to even speculate about the origin.
>
> LH
>
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