A boffin is British slang for a scientist, engineer, or other person engaged in technical or scientific work. The original World War II conception of war-winning researchers means that the term tends to have more positive connotations than related terms like spod, egghead, nerd, or geek.
Origin
Originally, the word was armed-forces slang for a technician or research scientist. In the 12 January 1953 issue of Life magazine, a short article on Malcolm Compston depicts him testing "the Admiralty's new plastic survival suit" in the Arctic Ocean; the article, entitled "Cold Bath for a Boffin", defines the term for its American audience as "civilian scientist working with the British Navy" and notes that his potentially life-saving work demonstrates "why the term 'boffin', which first began as a sailor's expression of joking contempt, has become instead one of affectionate admiration."
The origins and etymology of boffin are otherwise obscure. Linguist Eric Partridge proposed the term derived from Nicodemus Boffin, a character who appears in the novel Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, who is described there as a "very odd-looking old fellow indeed". In the novel, Mr Boffin pursues a late-life education, employing Silas Wegg to teach him to read.
The Baggins family lived in the Shire, mostly in or near the town of Hobbiton. Evidently aristocratic landowners, they intermarried extensively with the two titled families of the Shire, the Tooks and the Brandybucks. It seems likely that the Bagginses were the major landowners and leading family of the area around Hobbiton. They were seen as respectable (indeed, as more respectable than the aristocratic Tooks) until Bilbo Baggins set out on the quest of Erebor with Gandalf the Grey and thirteen Dwarves: when he returned he was seen as odd or queer, but also extremely rich. Bilbo adopted his "nephew" Frodo Baggins, who inherited the smial of Bag End after Bilbo left. Frodo himself was involved in the quest of the Lord of the Rings, which ended the War of the Ring.
Boffin is a British slang term for a scientist. It may also refer to:
Boffins, an Australian children's television series.
Boffin (computer game), computer platform game for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro systems
Boffin (hobbit family), fictional hobbit family in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Boffin, nickname given by the Royal Navy during World War II to the Mark V mountings for the Oerlikon 20 mm cannons up-gunned with the Bofors 40 mm gun
Boffin, variant spelling of the Welsh family name Baughan
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