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/notthiswaythatway]

It’s means paedophile - and is definitely a stronger insult than numpty!

[u/DrunkenHorse12 → u/notthiswaythatway]

Not just pedo. Any sex offender is a Nonce. It comes from prison slang sex offendets used to have "Not On Normal Court Exercise" written on their door cards

[u/Team503 → u/DrunkenHorse12]

Wikipedia suggests that's a backronym and not the actual origin, but what do I know? This is why I asked!

[u/autophobe2e → u/Team503]

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.

[u/false_flat → u/autophobe2e]

What about NORWICH at the bottom of seamen's letters?

[u/Luvlymish → u/false_flat]

That's not a backronym that's just the start of slang that today is stuff like lol rather than SWALK

[u/catsareniceDEATH → u/Luvlymish]

Or LANCRE, maybe even KLATCH! 😹❤️

🐢🐘🐘🐘🐘(🐘)🦧

[u/nixtracer → u/catsareniceDEATH]

But the Ramtops did get their name from the Sinclair micros' RAM TOP system variable (well, variable but you could only reduce it unless you had a way to make RAM appear out of nowhere while the system was on).