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Katrinarc Posted 13 years ago
Vocabulary
boffins and breathlessness
Hi. Could you help me? I don't understand this expression in the following context:
"The purpose of this report is ambitious: to provide a framework about, and a view of, the way in which technology — primarily digital technology — will evolve over the course of the next decade, and to help organizations plan their response to these changes. In doing this we also hope to put the emerging technologies into context; too much writing in this area is a rehash of 'The next new thing,' all boffins and
breathlessness.
"The purpose of this report is ambitious: to provide a framework about, and a view of, the way in which technology — primarily digital technology — will evolve over the course of the next decade, and to help organizations plan their response to these changes. In doing this we also hope to put the emerging technologies into context; too much writing in this area is a rehash of 'The next new thing,' all boffins and
breathlessness.
Top answer
Boffin is UK slang, so I'll defer to someone with a better BrE understanding, but to my knowledge it is a reference to an expert in a particular subject, but usually with a somewhat negative connotation implying that this is all they are concerned with. S. we might call such a person a "wonk" when they are obsessed with studying and analyzing a particular subject and its every nuance.
- Boffin is UK slang, so I'll defer to someone with a better BrE understanding, but to my knowledge it is a reference to an expert in a particular subject, but usually with a somewhat negative connotation implying that this is all they are concerned with.
- S.
- we might call such a person a "wonk" when they are obsessed with studying and analyzing a particular subject and its every nuance.
- Breathlessness is simply not taking a breath, or without breathing.
- I think, therefore, that the statement means the report is attempting to provide a framework for understanding emerging technologies without delving into every nuance that an expert (boffin) might want to discuss or analyze, for which, in the opinion of the report's writers, excessive and unending discussion (breathlessness) has already been put forth.
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3 Answers
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Boffin is UK slang, so I'll defer to someone with a better BrE understanding, but to my knowledge it is a reference to an expert in a particular subject, but usually with a somewhat negative connotation implying that this is all they are concerned with. In the U.S. we might call such a person a "wonk" when they are obsessed with studying and analyzing a particular subject and its every nuance.
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I defer to KJinCali on 'boffin', but 'breathlessness' I think refers to over-excitement or over-enthusiasm of the tech buffs.
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