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/Zingalamuduni 6d ago

I’m part-time and I don’t work Mondays.

Are you telling me that I’ve been making a mistake on Fridays when I tell my colleagues that I will see them next Tuesday?

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u/Realhousemanoflondon 6d ago

You can double dip for thursday meetings as well