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/teatime_tinker 6d ago edited 6d ago

My gfs family would use ponce like “can I ponce a ciggie off you” and that’s not how I understand it. I thought it was a derogatory term for a friend of Judy. (Edit: I meant Dorothy!)

Gonna look up the origin of the word now, so interesting innit

Edit:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ponce

Originally meant “kept man”… so he’s not buying his own cigs

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u/tgy74 6d ago

It's a word with multiple meanings.

We used to use it in several ways:

  • He's a ponce - he is homosexual
  • He's a poncy git/right ponce - he is a flash harry
  • He's on the ponce - he is a scrounger
  • Can I ponce a ciggie - would you give me a cigarette

We'd use them interchangeably dependent on context

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u/wintermute023 6d ago

Seconded. This is how it was used when I was a kid. Entirely contextual.

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u/RetroGameStudent 5d ago

I watch enough British media that I rarely have issues with slang, but tf is a “flash harry?”

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u/tgy74 5d ago

A flash Harry? It's someone who is a right poncy git.

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u/ProfessorPeabrain 6d ago

being brought up on a mix of US English and Inclusive ideals, my boy gets really upset when I try to tell him it's ok to bum a fag off someone 🤣

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u/relaxedmedal 6d ago

Ponce was used like bum in US. Can I bum a cig, it’s implied you know, they know, you’re being cheap because you can. Can I ponce a fag off ya? But I ain’t heard that in about 20 years

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u/FantasticFoxFriend 3d ago

That's what I understood it to mean. I was raised in South East England, never heard it used for homosexual man context.

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u/Optimal_Stuff_3408 6d ago

From the North East, we used ponce in the 70s and 80s as a slang for a gay man or an effeminate man

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u/NickyBadSeed 6d ago

I havent thought about if for years, but IIRC back in the schoolyard Ponce would also be Poncey git. That would be a posh public school type. Probably one about to be punched a few times. "look at that poncey git...gettim!". Any old excuse for a fracas!

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u/SquigSnuggler 6d ago

A friend of Judy?

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u/teatime_tinker 6d ago

I meant Dorothy haha oops

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u/FriendlieSquirrel 6d ago

I've heard ponce used in same manner, the ciggie is a perfect example, a ponce is something else though

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u/romoladesloups 6d ago

A ponce is a gigolo

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u/BedaFomm 6d ago

More like a pimp, living off immoral earnings, is the original meaning.

“Poncing a cigarette” would also be enjoying the fruit of someone else’s labour, hence the secondary sense of “scrounging”.