different between boffin vs coffin

English

Etymology

Origin unknown; a number of possible etymologies have been suggested, but no conclusive evidence exists.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?f?n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?f?n/
• Rhymes: -?f?n
• Hyphenation: bof?fin

Noun

boffin (plural boffins)

1. (Australia, Britain, informal) An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research. [from 1930s]

   Synonym: backroom boy
2. (Australia, Britain, informal, by extension) A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward; (in a weaker sense) an intellectual; a smart person.

   Synonyms: brain, brainiac, egghead; see also Thesaurus:intelligent person

Derived terms

• astro-boffin
• boff (possibly related)
• boffinery, boffinry

Translations

See also

• mad scientist
• egghead

References

Further reading

• boffin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Michael Quinion (8 February 2003) , “Boffin”, in World Wide Words

English

Alternative forms

• cophin (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English coffyn, from Old Northern French cofin (“sarcophagus", earlier "basket, coffer”), from Latin cophinus (“basket”), a loanword from Ancient Greek ??????? (kóphinos, “a basket”). Doublet of coffer.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?f?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?f?n/
• (US, cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /?k?f?n/
• Rhymes: -?f?n
• Rhymes: -?f?n

Noun

coffin (plural coffins)

1. A rectangular closed box in which the body of a dead person is placed for burial.

   Synonym: (US) casket

   • 20 May 2018, Hadley Freeman in The Guardian, Is Meghan Markle the American the royals have needed all along?

     I’d always found the royals a cold proposition, Diana excepted, but the sight of that little boy, his head bent, not daring to look up at his mother’s coffin in front of him was, and remains, genuinely heartbreaking.

2. (cartomancy) The eighth Lenormand card.
3. (archaic) A casing or crust, or a mold, of pastry, as for a pie.
   • 1596, The Good Huswife's Jewell

     Take your mallard and put him into the iuyce of the sayde Onyons, and season him with pepper, and salte, cloues and mace, then put your Mallard into the coffin with the saide iuyce of the onyons.

4. (obsolete) A conical paper bag, used by grocers.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

5. The hollow crust or hoof of a horse's foot, below the coronet, in which is the coffin bone.
6. A storage container for nuclear waste.

Usage notes

• The type of coffin with upholstery and a half-open lid (mostly in the United States) is called a casket.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

coffin (third-person singular simple present coffins, present participle coffining, simple past and past participle coffined)

1. (transitive) To place in a coffin.
   • 2007, Barbara Everett, "Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances," London Review of Books, 29:6, page 21:

     The chest in which she is coffined washes ashore and is brought to the Lord Cerimon.

Synonyms

• encoffin

Translations

Further reading

• coffin on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Middle English

Noun

coffin (plural)

1. Alternative form of coffyn