Sam Tyler watches as Gene Hunt kicks in a nonce. From the BBC series, Life On Mars. https://youtu.be/PHP3Jih_rfA Nonce, 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 .