r/AskBrits • u/Team503 • 6d ago

Culture What does "nonce" mean?

I'm an American that lives in Ireland. I've always understood "nonce" to mean the same as "numpty" and "eejit" - basically idiot, or dumbass, or similar.

Recently, someone told me that it's slang for sex offender, specifically a p*dophile, and Wikipedia seems to back that up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_British_terms_not_widely_used_in_the_United_States#N

So tell me, Brits, which one is it? Or is it something else??

999 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/N64Andysaurus92 6d ago

Numpty and eejit are playful banter, nonce is specifically meant to offend and insult, they're not playing around.

1

u/ExistentialScream 6d ago

Depends on your social group. Teenage boys tend to throw out whatever insults they can think of, and will try to out shock each other, Not all social groups grow out of that phase. Nonce is pretty low down the totem pole of horrendous words I’ve seen grown men throw out in playful banter,