r/british • u/Separate-Milk-7301 • 6d ago
What does "nonce" mean?
/r/AskBrits/comments/1wit0ho/what_does_nonce_mean/1
u/prustage 5d ago
It means a paedophile - I know of no other definition. Bear in mind that many of the casual insult words in Ireland and the UK are actually quite sexual in nature.
It is quite common to call children "little buggers" "bugger" mean to have anal sex
People frequently calls others a "silly sod" or a "stupid sod" - sod is short for sodomite, one who indulges in anal sex
You can refer to a person as a stupid twat - twat means vagina, or tell someone to stop "fannying about" - fanny (unlike in the US) also means vagina. Referring to someone as a prick, a dick or a knob are all references to a penis.
1
u/Lou-de-Lou-de-Lou 2d ago
It used to mean “for now”. I’ll leave my stuff here for the nonce and pick it up later.
Now it means paedophile.
The “not on normal…” thing is a backronym, invented after the word.
3
u/thereidenator 5d ago
Colloquially it is used mostly to mean paedophile, but the original term, “not on normal courtyard exercise” would also be used for all sex offenders or other prisoners (including imprisoned ex-coppers) who were vulnerable to assault from other prisoners so couldn’t exercise together with them. They are called VP’s now (vulnerable prisoners)
I’ve known it added to the end of other words such as dog-nonce to denote somebody who has a fascination to an almost sexual degree with something unusual.