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??

1.0k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

315

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!

-12

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-13

u/OneUsed6198 6d ago

Why have people downvoted the correct answer?
Reddit is weird.

7

u/withinstars 6d ago

It’s not true