boffin \BOF-in\,
noun:
a scientist or technical expert.
A brilliant boffin — well, everyone attached to Tea Clipper was brilliant in one way or another.
-- Tom Clancy, "The Cardinal of the Kremlin," 1988
Two years thinking of nothing else. Nobel laureate, balding boffin, government appointee, in the dock, fighting to stay out of jail.
-- Ian McEwan, "Solar," 2010
Boffin arose in the early 1940s. Though there are many hypotheses about its etymology, its origin remains unknown.
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