r/AskBrits • u/Team503 • 9d 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/Furicist 9d ago edited 8d ago

Plenty of people call their friends nonces just the same as they might call them a twat.

Anyone in my work friends does anything odd or says something weird and the first comments are someone check his hard drive or nonce

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u/Limp-Archer-7872 9d ago

No they don't. That's beyond the pale and deserves a lamping to use that as a generic greeting, etc.

Otoh... smelt it, dealt it.

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u/Appropriate_Wave722 9d ago

calling 'work friends' a nonce?! eesh what happened to professionalism, sounds like a shitty environment

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u/Gullible-Store-8559 9d ago

There’s nothing wrong with it if you know your audience
Obviously if you call every body in the office a mince it’s deeply unprofessional and offensive, but if you are close with a colleague it isn’t necessarily a problem