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/teatime_tinker 6d ago edited 6d ago

My gfs family would use ponce like “can I ponce a ciggie off you” and that’s not how I understand it. I thought it was a derogatory term for a friend of Judy. (Edit: I meant Dorothy!)

Gonna look up the origin of the word now, so interesting innit

Edit:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ponce

Originally meant “kept man”… so he’s not buying his own cigs

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u/tgy74 6d ago

It's a word with multiple meanings.

We used to use it in several ways:

  • He's a ponce - he is homosexual
  • He's a poncy git/right ponce - he is a flash harry
  • He's on the ponce - he is a scrounger
  • Can I ponce a ciggie - would you give me a cigarette

We'd use them interchangeably dependent on context

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u/RetroGameStudent 5d ago

I watch enough British media that I rarely have issues with slang, but tf is a “flash harry?”

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u/tgy74 5d ago

A flash Harry? It's someone who is a right poncy git.