nonce

noun

1. the present, or immediate, occasion or purpose (usually used in the phrase for the nonce).

adjective

2. (of a word or phrase) coined and used only for a particular occasion: nonce forms such as “paintrix,” meaning “a female painter.”

noun

1. the present time or occasion (now only in the phrase for the nonce)

noun

1. prison slang a rapist or child molester; a sexual offender

n.abstracted from phrase for þe naness (c.1200) “for a special occasion, for a particular purpose,” itself a misdivision (see N for other examples) of for þan anes “for the one,” in reference to a particular occasion or purpose, the þan being from Middle English dative definite article þam (see the). The phrase used from early 14c. as an empty filler in metrical composition. As an adjective from 1884.