Nonce (slang)

In the United Kingdom, nonce is a slang word for a pariah within a community of prisoners, typically a sex offender, child sexual abuser or one who has turned state's evidence.

Usage in English prisons

Nonce first came into widespread use in UK prisons, where it is primarily used by prisoners to refer to convicted sex offenders, especially abusers of children. "Nonces" are traditionally targets of physical abuse from their fellow prison inmates, and so usually go on Rule 45 (formerly Rule 43),[1] the rule that enables the segregation of vulnerable prisoners from the other prisoners for their own safety. The Rule 45 section of British prisons in which sex offenders are segregated (also known as going on 'The Numbers' or, in rhyming slang, 'The Cucumbers') is often referred to as the "nonce wing". In context, nonce could be used thusly; "That man is an absolute nonce."[2][3]

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary, while describing the word's etymology as "Origin unknown", states that it is "perhaps related to" nance and cites a quotation which claims the word was derived from nancy-boy (a derogatory term referring to effeminate or homosexual males). It also suggests that it may derive from the nonse, Lincolnshire dialect for "good-for-nothing fellow".[4]

Linguist Jonathon Green suggests the word derives from nonsense. He quotes a reference from 1970 citing "nonces" as being short for "nonsenses" and an additional citation from 1999.[2]

Nonce is an acronym of Not on Normal Courtyard Exercise. It is believed to have originated in Broadmoor Hospital where staff would write NONCE as an abbreviation next to the patients doors so that staff were aware these patients should not be allowed to have courtyard exercise with the other patients due to the risk posed to them as they were usually child sex offenders. As a result patients started calling them Nonces and as those patients went into the community or prison this spread as a slang term.

References

  1. ↑ "Introduction to Prisons".
  2. 1 2 "LISTSERV Discussion of origins of 'nonce'".
  3. ↑ "'Nonce' on Everything2".
  4. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. nonce, n.2.

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