A former coworker started a startup, and very nearly used it in the name until he was informed of how the UK views the word.

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

Seems it's unclear 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.

Wow, "backronym". Cool word. Interesting something can be widely accepted among a nation and have little to no surety about etymology

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_o...

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!

something like:

Not Observing Normal Community Exercise