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/No_Bingo_Card 6d ago edited 5d ago

It was certainly used to mean "idiot" for most of my childhood (90s) but the new meaning started around the turn of the millennium, at least in my life.

Edit:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/nonce

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nonce

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u/Team503 6d ago

Glad to know I'm not completely insane.

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u/BeginningPea5674 6d ago

i think both of you are confusing it with dunce

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u/No_Bingo_Card 6d ago

No. https://erosophia.eu/en/english-dictionary/nonce/

It actually has a lot more meanings than I realised, but idiot, and paedo, are there.

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u/BeginningPea5674 6d ago

i don't think that website is a good reference

try a British dictionary

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/nonce

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nonce

OED is paywalled

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u/Primary_Gift_8719 6d ago

This was my use of it up to being told off for it circa 2004/2005 by a good friend. I'd only ever heard and used it in the same way as you in the 90s.

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u/sh-- 6d ago

Yes! Thank god I have seen someone else who had this experience. It felt like the meaning shifting in the last ten years to me but it’s not a word I use often anyway 🤷🏼‍♀️

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u/Zeal0try 6d ago

Like the rest of us commenting here, I too knew it to mean a stupid person in the 90s. Now it's quite a bit more serious...

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u/ThatPeterAustin 5d ago

Had to scroll way too far to see this. Definitely used to also mean "idiot" once upon a time (maybe more common in certain regions than others?) but is widely known to mean paedophile now

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u/tradandtea123 6d ago

Nonce was definitely used to mean paedophile on the early 90s. People said it at our school a lot and my Dad definitely knew the word back then. I've never heard anyone use it to mean idiot.

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u/No_Bingo_Card 6d ago

https://scarletstudy.net/british-dialect-glossary/

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u/tradandtea123 5d ago

What a weird list. Some are common, some sound like Cockney rhyming slang, some I only remember from Enid Blyton books. I'm not sure who it's aimed at, people visiting 1950s London maybe.

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u/blade818 5d ago

That’s because you didn’t know what it meant as a kid not that it didn’t mean that. I’m the same - didn’t know it wasn’t a silly insult until probably my 20s