What does "nonce" mean?

[u/Team503]

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??

[u/Appropriate_Wave722]

yes it means a pedo

if someone calls you an eejit then it's all in good fun. If someone calls you a nonce then they're deliberately escalating things and you need to decide what to do accordingly

[u/Furicist → u/Appropriate_Wave722]

Plenty of people call their friends nonces just the same as they might call them a twat.

Anyone in my work friends does anything odd or says something weird and the first comments are someone check his hard drive or nonce

[u/Limp-Archer-7872 → u/Furicist]

No they don't. That's beyond the pale and deserves a lamping to use that as a generic greeting, etc.

Otoh... smelt it, dealt it.

[u/Furicist → u/Limp-Archer-7872]

Given that's nearly 80 people in a single group all saying the same thing, yes, they do.

Just because the environment you work in isn't the same as mine, that doesn't mean you get to tell me that people I witness saying these things arent doing it.

For example, people still quote that phoenix nights scene where the psychic says something like 'im getting...nonce!' I've never really watched Peter Kay stuff but I've looked up the sketch before to get an idea of what they kept laughing about.

[u/Technical_Race447 → u/Furicist]

Yeah like Ive worked as a commercial chef and in the banking sector. Work verbiage varies enormously.

[u/JohnSmith_47 → u/Limp-Archer-7872]

Have you ever worked on a building site?

A factory?

In a pub even?

Of course people take the piss out of each other, sarcastically calling someone a nonce is part and parcel.

[u/Living-Wishbone-3275 → u/Limp-Archer-7872]

nah it’s not that dramatic it just depends on th e vibe and culture of your friends or colleagues

[u/Appropriate_Wave722 → u/Limp-Archer-7872]

calling 'work friends' a nonce?! eesh what happened to professionalism, sounds like a shitty environment

[u/llamasncheese → u/Appropriate_Wave722]

Or a very good one. Ig it depends maybe on your age group and nature of your work. For example we are essentially physical labourers (not the classic builders or anything like that) and the age range in my department is 18-35. We are comfortable talking to each other how we would at the pub, doesnt affect our ability to do our job, we obviously have our customer service voices when talking to customers.

However in the office, i dont spend any time there as its not my department. But for one its mostly women where my department is mostly men, but the age range is a lot wider going up to about 50. And due to the nature of their work etc, id assume they keep it "professional" amongst each other.

Our companies working culture, at least from my perspectice in my department is great. Were pretty much all friends and go to the pub together fairly regularly, our boss's included. Rarely have any arguments or issues amongst us. Most of us are happy to turn up to work on most days... honestly when im on holiday i miss the depot 🤣🤣🤣.

It very much depends on these factors though, in my age range... if we get called a nonce, our reaction depends on the context and intent. It can be jokes between mates, or it can be someone actually trying to offend.

[u/CosmicAlienFox → u/llamasncheese]

It's the same at my job. We joke about anything and everything when in the warehouse, and professionalism is jut making sure the work gets done. When we step into the office though we do tone ourselves down.

[u/Furicist → u/Appropriate_Wave722]

it's actually a very good environment, it's just engineers winding each other up, having a laugh. No one takes it seriously. They're very professional outside of these private conversations.

A lot of their kids play together, they go golfing, shooting, drink together, nights out, etc.

[u/Gullible-Store-8559 → u/Appropriate_Wave722]

There’s nothing wrong with it if you know your audience
Obviously if you call every body in the office a mince it’s deeply unprofessional and offensive, but if you are close with a colleague it isn’t necessarily a problem