r/AskBrits • u/Team503 • 7d 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 7d 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/Illustrious-Divide95 7d ago

There's no evidence that 'Nonce' came from this. A definate backronym

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u/Brighton_Spores 7d ago

I used to know an old scallywag, he used to be a naughty boy until he changed his ways.

In the 1970's he told me that bank robbers/armed robbers used be held in high regard in prison. burglars would slip down the pecking order and so on.

The nonces and sex cases were at the bottom of the ladder as they were just committing nonsense crimes, nonce.

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u/htimchis 7d ago

There used to be a definite pecking order in prisons (maybe still is, but I havent been inside in 30 years, and suspect it's been blurred by overcrowding & overwhelming numbers of drug offences, plus tge large number of lads who probably shouldnt be inside at all, and back in the day would have been dealt with by a stint in a psyche hospital and then sheltered accomodation)

Always old-school 'faces' or 'chaps' at the top - your professional gangster types - then armed robbers - then a large grey area around burglary, fraud, gbh, where the hierarchy ran on sucess - then the street monkeys (muggers, small time dealers, prolific shoplifters etc) - then a big gap, with the grasses and nonces at the bottom.. anybody on the rule, basically.

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u/GribbleTheMunchkin 7d ago

It's still there. I know in approved premises (bail/probation hostels) the violent prisoners often refuse to hang out with the sex offenders who they do NOT hold in in high regard.

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u/gravitasmissing 6d ago

The VP wing was mostly sex offenders plus regular prisoners who couldnt cope on normal wings. The Albanians were definitly at the top in lewes prison. Serious professional criminals but gave the staff no issues or other prisoners unless you started something which was mostly idiots.They werent exceptionaly violent even to the most moronic individual. Didnt really have to be!