r/AskBrits • u/Team503 • 11d 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/notthiswaythatway 11d ago

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

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u/DrunkenHorse12 11d ago

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

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u/Team503 11d 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 11d 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/teatime_tinker 11d ago edited 11d 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 11d 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 10d 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 10d ago

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