[Ads-l] It=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_a_bird=3B_It=E2=80=99s_a_plane=3B_It=E2=80=99s_?=a boffin

[Mark Mandel]

Make that a "baffining" question.

MAM


On Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 11:11 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> > Garson O'Toole wrote:
> > > The term Boffin was linked to birds by March 1943.
>
> Jonathan Lighter  wrote:
> > Then it should be "buffin," shouldn't it?
>
> I am not sure what you mean.
> The 1943 citation indicates (to me) that the Puffin-Baffin explanation
> of 1945 may have been circulating in 1943. Admittedly, it is a
> baffling question.
>
> Garson
>
> > On Fri, Mar 18, 2022 at 9:17 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > The term Boffin was linked to birds by March 1943.
> > >
> > > Date: March 28, 1943
> > > Newspaper: Sunday Dispatch
> > > Newspaper Location: London, England
> > > Article: Seeks RAF Boffins
> > > Author: Alan Tomkins
> > > Quote Page 4, Column 6
> > > Database: British Newspaper Archive
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt - double check for typos]
> > > One chap told me that Boffins were named after birds. I could find no
> > > Boffin in the books of reference.
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt - double check for typos]
> > > BOFFINS are civilians. The Chief Boffins and most of the staff work in
> > > offices at Command Headquarters. Minion Boffins haunt operational
> > > stations.
> > >
> > > At meal times and on social occasions they mix with operational crews.
> > >
> > > They are scientists, mathematicians, and accountants. They are
> > > students of human nature—especially the nature of boys who fly large,
> > > expensive, complicated lethal weapons.
> > >
> > > Between them they possess just about all the knowledge in existence
> > > concerning meteorology, aerodynamics. ballistics, explosives,
> > > metallurgy, air pressure, and sea pressure.
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > Garson
> > >
> > > On Fri, Mar 18, 2022 at 8:43 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> > > <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > There was an ADS discussion thread back in 2014.  Hugo found
> pertinent
> > > > evidence dated February 1942.
> > > >
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2014-June/133031.html
> > > >
> > > > Here is the Puffin-Baffin explanation for Boffin in August 1945.
> > > >
> > > > Date: August 15, 1945
> > > > Newspaper: Daily Herald
> > > > Newspaper Location: London, England
> > > > Article: How Boffins Won Battles with Echoes
> > > > Author: Charles Bray
> > > > Quote Page 2, Column 3 and 4
> > > > Database: British Newspaper Archive
> > > >
> > > > [Begin excerpt - double check for typos]
> > > > CHARLES BRAY “Daily Herald” Air Correspondent, who watched Radar’s
> > > > secret triumphs in many battles, tells the story today.
> > > >
> > > > He also has something to explain:
> > > >
> > > > “Once upon a time a Puffin, a strange and peculiar bird, was crossed
> > > > with a Baffin, an obsolete Fleet Air Arm aircraft of equally peculiar
> > > > habits; and the result, according to Service fantasy, was a ‘Boffin.’
> > > >
> > > > “This was a creature of intensive energy, strange appearance and
> > > > unbelievable inventive capacity, whose eggs, as fast as you pushed
> > > > them away from you, rolled back again.
> > > >
> > > > “That, then, is the origin of the nickname ‘Boffin,’ given to the
> > > > civilian scientists who perfected Radar.”
> > > > [End excerpt]
> > > >
> > > > [Begin excerpt - double check for typos]
> > > > This is “Boffins’ Day,” because for the first time it is permissible
> > > > to tell something of the war saga of the “Backroom Boys,” known
> > > > throughout the Services of the United Nations as “Boffins.”
> > > >
> > > > It is a dramatic and romantic story of a battle of wits, brains and
> > > > inventive genius between the scientists of the United Nations and
> > > > those of the enemy, and the United Nations team won hands down.
> > > >
> > > > They were not impressive to look at, these Boffins who haunted Army,
> > > > Navy and RAF stations in usually rather shabby civilian clothes, and
> > > > were ever ready to argue on almost any subject except their own work.
> > > >
> > > > But generals, air marshals and admirals treated them with respect,
> for
> > > > only the very senior officers knew much of their activities.
> > > >
> > > > Theirs was the best-kept secret of the war. They were conducting what
> > > > has been aptly described as the very “heart” of  the United Nations
> > > > war effort.
> > > >
> > > > Their greatest achievement of many was the discovery, development and
> > > > perfection of Radar, radiolocation ...
> > > > [End excerpt]
> > > >
> > > > Garson
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Mar 18, 2022 at 11:59 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu
> >
> > > wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > [Puffin; Baffin, plane discontinued in 1941;…]
> > > > > OED has boffin n. as “elderly Naval officer” from 1941 [though it’s
> > > 1942 cite I find from 1945 and maybe 1943, author elsewhere given as
> Edward
> > > Horace Crebbin, Royal Navy] and “person engaged in…technical research”
> from
> > > 1945 [though both senses come from air and sea coastal protection and
> may
> > > not be quite distinct?]
> > > > > M-W has the latter sense from 1942
> > > > > Green’s Slang adds “[ety. unknown, although according to Robert
> > > Watson-Watt (1892–1973), the inventor of radar, the term ‘has
> something to
> > > do with an obsolete type of aircraft called the Baffin, something to do
> > > with that odd bird, the Puffin’ (Three Steps to Victory, 1957)]”
> > > > > Wikipedia has some useful links.
> > > > > Of course, Boffin is a family name and was used also by Dickens
> and P.
> > > G. Wodehouse, though without evident relevance here.
> > > > > WP cites: Radar at Sea (1993) 86,  a text it dates as Ap. 1, 1941:
> > > > > [We] played cards waiting for the weather to deteriorate. At last
> it
> > > did & both ‘boffins’ were so sick that they could only just make it to
> the
> > > set. … [They] turned over to me all the drawings of circuits and layout
> > > etc., & wished me luck … They couldn’t get away quick enough!
> > > [Sub-Lieutenant Orton, RNVR].
> > > > > Watson-Watt [aka “archboffin”] wrote the above accounting also
> > > earlier, in 1953:
> > > > > https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4051258
> > > > > Discover Dec. 1946 [GB]:  PAGE 358 They are brilliant , cranky and
> > > downright bigoted ; right at the beginning they are christened '
> Boffins '
> > > - a term derived by crossing ' Puffin ' ( a bird with a mournful cry )
> with
> > > ' Baffin ' ( an obsolete type of R.A.F aircraft )
> > > > > RAF officer (various ranks) George Philip Chamberlain, assigned to
> > > coast protection in early WW II, is sometimes proposed as the coiner.
> In
> > > any case, he was apparently an early adopter.
> > > > > A self-designation has also been claimed.
> > > > > Stephen Goranson
>
>

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