Luvvies

"You're either a luvvie or a boffin", said Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, referring to the downgrading of science and technology in British schools (see here).

 

Luvvie is defined in the OED as "An actor or actress, esp. one who is considered particularly effusive or affected; (hence) anyone actively involved with entertainment or the arts." Here are some sentences from recent newspaper reports, which give you a picture of a 'luvvie':

"He is every am-dram nightmare rolled into one as he offers a Bottom who knows he is destined to be a star and acts like the ultimate luvvie to prove it". (from a revue of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Stratford)

"How marvellous it would be, darling, if the fleeting luvvie kiss (mwah, mwah) ..." (Evening Standard - warning! pop-up on this page).

"Don’t you love a good luvvie memoir?" and "Liza began going to parties hosted by the city’s husband-and-wife luvvies-inchief, John McCallum and Googie Withers ...", both in the Daily Express (more pop-ups, I'm afraid).

 

The OED says 'luvvie' comes from the older 'lovey', defined as "A beloved person, a darling. Usu. as an affectionate form of address". It calls the word luvvie 'humorous, or mildly derogatory'. The word dates from the 1980s and the first citation, from 1988 is, appropriately enough, from Stephen Fry: "Acting in a proper grown-up play, being a lovie, doing the West End, ‘shouting in the evenings’, as the late Patrick Troughton had it".

 

A boffin, incidentally, is "an intellectual, an academic, a clever person; an expert in a particular field; esp. such a person perceived as lacking practical or social skills" (OED). It was originally used by members of the RAF to refer to scientists. The Dictionary says that the origin is unknown and the suggestions regarding its origin (eg that it's after an obsolete type of aircraft, the Baffin, that it was the name of a restaurant frequented by scientists, or that it was named after a Dickens character) all lack foundation.

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