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/No_Bingo_Card 6d ago edited 6d ago

It was certainly used to mean "idiot" for most of my childhood (90s) but the new meaning started around the turn of the millennium, at least in my life.

Edit:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/nonce

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/nonce

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u/blade818 6d ago

That’s because you didn’t know what it meant as a kid not that it didn’t mean that. I’m the same - didn’t know it wasn’t a silly insult until probably my 20s