nonce

• enPR: nŏns, IPA^(key): /nɒns/
  • (UK) IPA^(key): [nɒn(t)s]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [nɑn(t)s]
• Rhymes: -ɒns

From Middle English nonse, nones, a rebracketing of Middle English to þan anes, for þan anes (to/for the one (occasion, instance)). The cryptography sense is commonly said to be a contraction of number used once, although this is probably incorrect.

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.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXX:

     [...] Dunce, / Dotard, a-dozing at the very nonce, / After a life spent training for the sight!

   • 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. (cryptography) A value constructed so as to be unique to a particular message in a stream, in order to prevent replay attacks.
   • 1978 December 1, Roger M. Needham, “Using Encryption for Authentication in Large Networks of Computers”, in Communications of the ACM, volume 21, number 12:

     The protocol opens with A communicating in clear to AS his own claimed identity and the identity of the desired correspondent, B, together with A's nonce identifier for this transaction, I_A1. ("Nonce" means "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.

   • 2006, Tom St Denis, Cryptography for Developers:

     Both CCM and GCM require a unique nonce (N used once) value to maintain their privacy and authenticity goals.

   • 2012, Steven Anson, Mastering Windows Network Forensics and Investigation:

     The main idea with the challenge-response type of authentication protocol is that the challenge sent by the server is used only once (referred to as a cryptographic nonce, which means “number used once”).

• for the nonce
• nonce word
• nonce borrowing

nonce (not comparable)

1. One-off. Denoting something occurring once.
   • 1977, Robert Anderson Hall & ‎David Morris Feldman, Homenaje a Robert A. Hall, Jr, page 75:

     But particular men are not stereotyped for jobs nor particular desks (as against others) to sit at - the standard here is nonce.

   • 2009, Judith FARR & ‎Louise Carter, The Gardens of Emily Dickinson, →ISBN, page 55:

     Dickinson's association of heliotrope with Mary Bowles was nonce and fleeting, but the subject of gardens was always a safe one on which to address her: “How is your garden – Mary? Are the Pinks true –?”

   • 2010, Susana Rivera-Mills & ‎Juan Antonio Trujillo -, Building Communities and Making Connections, →ISBN, page 191:

     Poplack et al. (1988, 57) found that 65% of their types were nonce and only 7% of the types were considered widespread.

Unknown, derived from British criminal slang. Several origins have been proposed; possibly derived from dialectal nonce, nonse (“stupid, worthless individual”), or Nance, nance (“effeminate man”), from nancy or nancyboy. Another theory is that it is a shortening or dialectal pronunciation of "no(t) once", a common defense of sexual predators in court of law.

nonce (plural nonces)

1. (Britain, slang, derogatory) A sex offender, especially one who is guilty of sexual offences against children.

   That bloke who lives at number 53 is a nonce!

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

   Shut it, ya nonce!

• IPA^(key): /nɔ̃s/

• Audio

  (file)

nonce m (plural nonces)

1. nuncio

• “nonce” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• conne