Originally, the word was armed-forces slang for a technician or research scientist.[1] In 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."[2]
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".[3] In the novel, Mr Boffin pursues a late-life education, employing Silas Wegg to teach him to read.[4]
The word also made a few other appearances in literature prior to World War II. J.R.R. Tolkien used Boffin as a surname for a hobbit family in The Hobbit (1937), and a Sergeant Boffin appears in Mr. Bliss (written circa 1932). William Morris has a man called Boffin meet the newly arrived time traveller in his novel News from Nowhere (1890).[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin
