4 ms·

How did nonce get that meaning in the uk? I've always known nonce to be a single use number

• rolph 3y ago
  something like: Not Observing Normal Community Exercise
• delecti 3y ago
  Seems it's unclear https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nonce#Etymology_2 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nonce#Etymology_2 > 1975. Unknown, derived from British criminal slang. Several origins have been proposed; possibly derived from dialectal nonce, nonse (“stupid, worthless individual”) (but this cannot be shown to predate nonce "child-molester" and is likely a toned-down usage of the same insult), or Nance, nance (“effeminate man, homosexual”), from nancy or nancyboy. The rhyme with ponce has also been noted. > As prison slang also said to be an acronym for "Not On Normal Communal Exercise" (Stevens 2012), but this is likely a backronym.
  • mptest 3y ago
    Wow, "backronym". Cool word. Interesting something can be widely accepted among a nation and have little to no surety about etymology
    • delecti 3y ago
      Just wait until you hear about "okay". It's widely used in languages around the world, and there are dozens of competing etymologies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_etymologies_of_OK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_etymologies_o...
      • mptest 3y ago
        That was an incredible read. thank you for that. "Oll Korrect", Old kinderhook(!) , oke okeh, Ohne Korrectur. Etymology is awesome. I really overestimated how much we know about our own language I guess!