boffin

noun

1. (Australia, British, Ireland, New-Zealand, informal)An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research.

   “In fact, a fighting friend of mine said that he could hardly walk in any direction in this war without tumbling over a scientist who had got in the way. In the Royal Air Force, where the concentration of scientists is perhaps greatest, they have a pet name for them. They call them “Boffins.” Why, I do not know. I said to a young friend of mine in the Air Force, “Why do you call scientists ‘Boffins’?” He said, “I don’t know. What else would you call them?””

   “With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer.”

   “An essential difference between a boffin and a back room boy, as [Robert] Watson-Watts points out, is that the boffin does not stay in the back room but emerges to poke his nose into other peoples[’] business. It is quite wrong to use the word ‘boffin’ simply to describe a scientist or a technician; a boffin is essentially a middleman, a bridge between two worlds, […]”

2. (Australia, British, Ireland, New-Zealand, broadly, informal)A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.

   “The opportunities for producers in the interactive multimedia environment are boundless. The boffins writing software programs for interactive multimedia will not be the producers of corporate communications. They need today's producers to bring their communication skills to the interactive domain, […]”

3. (Australia, British, Ireland, New-Zealand, broadly, informal)A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.