You are reading a single comment by @aglet and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
not
on
normal
communal
exerciseI’d like to see a citation with evidence for that origin. It looks like a folk backronym to me, akin to alleging “posh” is derived from port out, starboard home. The OED says (use your library card number to log in):
Origin: Of unknown origin.
Etymology: Origin unknown. Perhaps related to nance n. (see quot. 1984), or perhaps compare English regional nonse good-for-nothing fellow, recorded in Eng. Dial. Dict. Suppl. from Lincolnshire
[…]
1984 Police Rev. 18 May 975/3 Nonce, prison term for a child molester. The very bottom of the prison pecking order, the ‘nonce’ is usually segregated from ordinary prisoners at all times for his own protection. Originally derived from ‘nancy-boy’.
aglet
didn’t realise nonce comes from
not
on
normal
communal
exercise
so the peado wing inmates.
he’s not being tried here and not going to prison but the thought of him being detained ‘at her majesty’s pleasure’ 😅