From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Mon Jul 17 2000 - 06:47:07 MDT
Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> This is a kinda silly post, but in micro-editing THE SPIKE for the US
> edition my editor asks for US-friendly replacements for `boffin' and
> `motor-mower engine'.
>
> Main Entry: bof·fin
> Pronunciation: 'bä-f&n
> Function: noun
> Etymology: origin unknown
> Date: 1945
> chiefly British : a scientific expert;
> especially : one involved in technological
> research
>
> and a motor-mower engine is the sort of lawnmower run by petrol (gas),
> rather than human ATP and huffing sounds.
>
> My use of `boffins' relates to Arthur C Clarke and his Interplanetary
> Society chums after WW II, so it's kinda hard to see why I should use a
> *non*-Brit term, but if you demmed colonials don't understand what it
> means, then I shall do so. Any suggestions for Yankoid contenders? `Nerd
> and `geek' are of course much too recent. `Pundit' isn't quite right.
> `Longhaired experts', `pointyheads' and other 1950ish terms don't catch it
> either.
Try 'techno-guru', and 'lawnmower' is quite fine for a motor driven
grass cutter. We look at the human driven kind as more of a torture
device than an actual lawn implement... ;-P
Mike Lorrey
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