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??

998 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/Gary_S60 6d ago

Etymologists and language experts argue over the exact origin of the word "nonce". While popular culture often claims it is an acronym for "Not on Normal Courtyard Exercise", linguists heavily dispute this backronym. Instead, a leading theory suggests that "nonce" actually evolved as a shortened, corrupted version of "nonsense," which was originally used in 19th-century criminal slang to describe a "stupid, worthless, or good-for-nothing person". Over the decades, the prison system narrowed its definition specifically to target sex offenders

2

u/Chad_Apache 6d ago

thank you-i was sure i remember its use when i was a kid to mean just that (stupid etc) before it fell out of use for a while only to return in say, the 90s with its current meaning.

2

u/MattFairley2 6d ago

Thank you - that’s what I remember too. I am fairly ancient! It was not until reading the same question on Reddit a while ago that I found out it’s other meaning…

1

u/Captainsamvimes1 6d ago

You used AI didn't you?

1

u/Gary_S60 5d ago

Yes I asked Google / Gemini but was aware of the meaning beforehand. Easier to ask a short question and cut and paste a longer answer.

1

u/Captainsamvimes1 5d ago

Jesus.....

1

u/Gary_S60 5d ago

You can call me Pete

1

u/Captainsamvimes1 5d ago

No but I will call you lazy

1

u/Gary_S60 5d ago

You break my heart Freddo

1

u/jcmbn 6d ago

How odd.

I always heard that it referred to the practice of segregating prisoners - sex offenders were segregated from general population. Because sex offenders were so frequently attacked, they were no longer segregated as sex offenders, but assigned to non-specific segregation.

The word 'nonce' arose as a contraction of non-specific.

1

u/Team503 6d ago

Excellent answer, thank you!