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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 66.191.19.68 (talk) at 23:33, 18 February 2009 (→Massive vandalism.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Article Boffins listed on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion Apr 26 to May 3 2004, consensus was to delete. Discussion:

  • Dicdef of slang. -- Ben Brockert 22:43, Apr 26, 2004 (UTC)
  • List for cleanup, but am inclined to keep. With its WWII origins, and its obscurity to many in the USA, it's a word that a good article could be written about, and what's there is a start. Smerdis of Tlön 00:33, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
    • I have expanded the entry. Probably ought to be moved to boffin in any case. Smerdis of Tlön 14:15, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep. Fine in its present state. I've read enough Nevil Shute and Len Deighton and so forth novels, set in Britain during WWII, and think that it's an adequate pop-culture-type article that could grow nicely. Haven't I also seen references to the "Wizards' War?" Dambusters and FIDO and H2S and Chain Home and Bletchley Park and Frank Whittle and midnight flights to bring the cavity magnetron to the U. S. and all that? Pip pip! Jolly good, eh what? Dpbsmith 15:23, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep: interesting, informative. Wile E. Heresiarch 20:07, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Looks reasonable. Keep. DS 12:15, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep, but should be moved to boffin, as per Wikipedia style ("prefer singular nouns"). Can probably co-exist with the hobbit reference for now, and if either gets too big, it can be a disambig page. - IMSoP 13:38, 1 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

End discussion

Um, don't you mean consensus was to keep but move to singular noun? Also, do we really need Boffin (disambiguation) rather than a link straight through to Boffin (hobbit family)? I'm rather inclined to give the user one less link to follow myself. - IMSoP 16:00, 3 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

See Also

Why does this article link to BAF? --AdamBackstrom (talk) 15:43, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Er. . . uh. . . because it can? Smerdis of Tlön 15:57, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Fair enough. --AdamBackstrom (talk) 21:44, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

teacher's pets

'or repellent teacher's pets at school - lapping up their school work.'

I disagree with this as a universal statement but I think it suits Nida Jafri.She is a goody two shoes! I attended schools outside London, UK during the 70s and 80s and the phrase did not carry the pejorative nature of the word swot. The phrase described a pupil known to be especially knowledgeable, particularly the sort of pupil who was likely to enjoy attending an after school computer or electronics club. There were boffins who were cool as well as boffins who were disliked. The term of derision for a pupil who worked hard was swot.

Mostly boffin was only applied to boys, unlike the term swot which was used to insult both boys and girls in equal measure.


category notible boffins should be deleated... clearly irrelevant information and most probably an ammature attempt at high school styled humour

Paul HH 18:12, April 1, 2005 (GMT)

The mystique of the boffin

It is difficult to follow what this part of the article is saying. It seems to suggest that the word 'boffin' became less a compliment and more of a joke during the 1950s/1970s, because Britain's scientists were less capable than their American counterparts.

This does not seem to me to be true, and there is no justification given for this statement at all. In fact, Britain was matching the US during the 1950s, and while it was economically overtaken during the 1960s, projects like Concorde showed that British 'boffins' could still deliver. However, more importantly, I can see no proof whatsoever that the word has lost its meaning of expertise and become primarily funny.

While the word boffin is often used in a jocular context - the eccentric aspect being of relevence here - this is certainly not the primary meaning of the term in Britain. If it were, the term would not be used commercially to indicate expertise. Yet a simple google shows many British companies using the term in a positive and non-humourous context - http://www.offshoreboffin.com/ and http://www.boffin.com/ are two examples. Compare these with Google hits for American companies using the word 'nerd'. Most other UK google hits show that the word is almost a direct one-to-one synonym with 'scientist' or 'engineer'. Eccentric scientists exist, of course, and are a Hollywood stock-in-trade, but this one-sided portrayal does not show that the boffin is always mad - one might equally claim that the film 'The Nutty Professor' shows that American 'professors' are denigrated because of perceived failings with the Space Shuttle!

Typical examples of current British 'boffins' include Colin Pillinger, lead scientist on the Mars Beagle project, and Ron Ayers, aerodynamics engineer for the current supersonic land speed record holder, Thrust SSC.

This whole section seems to be a typical example of US-centerism, based on TV portrayals. My understanding of the word is that it does carry the 'other-worldly' eccentricity image which the word 'professor' often carries - it can be denigrated by anti-intellectuals in the same way as the word 'professor' can be, but there is no implication that a 'boffin' is a joke because Britain's scientists are a joke. Americans may meet the word only through film/tv (where all the examples seem to come from), and so may have a distorted view? 86.10.119.90 (talk) 17:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]


Dr. Cyclops image

Given the conceptual distance between "boffin" and "mad scientist," the image is really a poor fit. Given the lead, Alec Guiness in The Man in the White Suit would be ideal. Failing that, Michael Rennie as Barnes Wallis in The Dambusters or James Stewart as Theodore Honey in No Highway would work. I'm not well-versed in the fair-use issues associated with adding images, but will try to get up to speed and see what I can do about it.

ABVR 04:20, 9 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Belatedly, agreed. Boffins are definitely not evil, as Dr Cyclops is. I've removed the image. If we're thinking fictional, Professor Branestawm is a good example[1], as is Q in the James Bond films. Gordonofcartoon (talk) 10:22, 8 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Massive vandalism.

There appears to have been some massive amounts of vandalism, because the article currently only consists of 'Scott.' For some reason, I keep get an error when trying to revert. Any other edits care to fix this? Preferably ASAP. 66.191.19.68 (talk) 20:56, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Successfully reverted to last (presumably) good version. Griswald (talk) 22:35, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for handling it. 66.191.19.68 (talk) 23:33, 18 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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