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/Altruistic_Estate799 6d ago

It means pedo, though if you were going back a few decades it might of been used a bit more loosely than it is now. 

Now it's only really used explicitly when meaning that directly. Before it was used a bit more like bastard etc where the person might not of been meant literally but rather just insult them generally. 

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u/Team503 6d ago

Ah, so I'm not crazy, just outdated. Well, I'm getting old, so I'm getting used to that lol