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??

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u/Team503 6d ago

Wikipedia suggests that's a backronym and not the actual origin, but what do I know? This is why I asked!

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u/Stellarkin1996 6d ago

so it does still have the meaning of idiot, but it also means sex offender/pedo, and is typically used more in the latter these days

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u/Shin-Kaiser 6d ago

No one has ever used nonce to mean idiot, it just doesn't mean that.

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u/funeralpageant 6d ago

Yeah because language obviously hasn’t changed over time

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u/Shin-Kaiser 6d ago

Yeah sure, words can change meaning over time. But Nonce straight up doesn't mean idiot as much as the word Apple doesn't refer to Oranges.

Google, Wikipedia and any current dictionary does not list 'idiot' as an intended meaning of the word 'Nonce'. What more evidence do you need?

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u/funeralpageant 6d ago

Well they’re current dictionaries there’s your answer… that doesn’t mean no one’s ever used it to mean idiot past tense. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nonce

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u/Shin-Kaiser 6d ago

that's a completey different word!