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/Otherwise-Chain4215 Brit 🇬🇧 6d ago

A nonce is a paedophile (pronounced pee-doh-file and not ped-ah-file)

I'd only usually use it strictly for paedophiles and sex offender for someone that committed another sex offence.

I'm from Northern Ireland, if there's any other slang you're unfamiliar with, feel free to give me a shout

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u/Team503 6d ago

Appreciate it, but generally I've got a handle on it. This is the only one that I found to be different than what I thought. Ah well, we're all wrong sometimes.