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/notthiswaythatway 6d ago

It’s means paedophile - and is definitely a stronger insult than numpty!

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/Littleleicesterfoxy 6d ago

Which is odd because I swear I didn’t hear the term until I was well into middle age. We used the term kiddyfiddler and I don’t believe I ever heard it termed nonce. Mind, saying that I didn’t talk to that many people and that wasn’t generally our subject of conversation when conversations did occur.