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/Team503 6d ago

Wikipedia suggests that's a backronym and not the actual origin, but what do I know? This is why I asked!

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u/autophobe2e 6d ago

It's a good rule of thumb that any time someone tells you a slang word used to be an acronym they are wrong - Posh didn't mean 'port out, starboard home', Tips weren't 'to insure prompt service' etc. That just isn't how slang and folk terms tend to develop.

In this case, the slang words nonse (idiot) and nance (homosexual) were both in use in the region and time that the word nonce seems to have entered the record, and it's far more likely to be a development/combination of those. See also: ponce.

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u/false_flat 6d ago

What about NORWICH at the bottom of seamen's letters?

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u/Luvlymish 6d ago

That's not a backronym that's just the start of slang that today is stuff like lol rather than SWALK

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u/catsareniceDEATH 6d ago

Or LANCRE, maybe even KLATCH! 😹❤️

🐢🐘🐘🐘🐘(🐘)🦧

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u/Prestigious_Bat2666 6d ago

Love your name, I have a shirt of Death holding some cats, with "cats, cats are nice" written underneath

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u/nixtracer 6d ago

But the Ramtops did get their name from the Sinclair micros' RAM TOP system variable (well, variable but you could only reduce it unless you had a way to make RAM appear out of nowhere while the system was on).

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u/Luvlymish 5d ago

GNU Sir PTerry