nonce

English

Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From a misdivision in Middle English of þan anes (“the one (occasion, instance)”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: nŏns, IPA: /nɒns/, X-SAMPA: /nQns/
  • (UK) IPA: [nɒn(t)s], X-SAMPA: [nQn(t)s]
  • (US) IPA: [nɑn(t)s], X-SAMPA: [nAn(t)s]
• Rhymes: -ɒns

Noun

nonce (plural nonces)

1. The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose (now only in for the nonce).

   That will do for the nonce, but we'll need a better answer for the long term.

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, chapter 6:

     'Idiot!' exclaimed the doctor, who for the nonce was not capable of more than such spasmodic attempts at utterance.

2. (lexicography) A nonce word.

   I had thought that the term was a nonce, but it seems as if it's been picked up by other authors.

3. (computing) A number, usually generated randomly or from the time, used once in a cryptographic protocol, to prevent replay attacks.

Translations

The one or single occasion; the present reason or purpose

• Dutch: gelegenheid (nl) f
• Hungarian: alkalom (hu)

• Russian: данный случай m

A nonce word

• Dutch: hapax (nl)

• French: hapax (fr) m

Adjective

nonce (not comparable)

1. denoting something occurring once.

Derived terms

• for the nonce
• nonce word
• nonce borrowing

Etymology 2

Unknown – UK criminal slang. Possibly originally from dialectical nonce, nonse (“stupid, worthless individual”), or Nance, nance (“effeminate man”), from Nancy boy.

See Wikipedia article for further discussion.

Noun

nonce (plural nonces)

1. (UK, slang, pejorative) A sex offender, especially of children; a paedophile.

   That bloke who lives at number 53 is a nonce!

2. (UK, slang) A stupid or worthless person.

Translations

A sex offender, especially of children; a paedophile

A stupid or worthless person

• Danish: tumpe (da)

Etymology 3

Contraction of number used once

Noun

nonce (plural nonces)

1. (cryptography) A datum constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.

   In this protocol we use the serial number of the message as a nonce.

2. (cryptography) In a security engineering context, a value used only once.
   • 1999, Network Working Group, RFC 2617 – HTTP Authentication: Basic and Digest Access Authentication, The Internet Society, page 22,

     The information gained by the eavesdropper would permit a replay attack, but only with a request for the same document, and even that may be limited by the server's choice of nonce.

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /nɔ̃s/, X-SAMPA: /nO~s/

Noun

nonce m (plural nonces)

1. nuncio

Anagrams

• conne