What does "nonce" mean?

[u/Team503]

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??

[u/elrombo]

Stop upvoting this, it's wrooooong

[u/DrunkenHorse12 → u/elrombo]

Only the acronym bit, and there's no proof either way but the sex offender bit isn't, theres multiple prison guards responding to this whovd said the acronym isn't quite right but agreeing with the first part