David, yes, the phrase as Esther intended it is completely innocuous. But the explanation for why Esther has gotten flack for it's use lies, I would imagine, the other meaning of the word "nonce", that arose, likely with an unrelated etymology, as prison slang in 1970s. I'd imagine that far more Brits are familiar with the latter meaning than the former.

Thanks, Matt. It is indeed worse than I feared.

Hmm, Dave, Chaucer thinking canonical hours?

Sorry - I risked clouding the issue.

Annie, in a question intended for Brits, clouds seem entirely appropriate. Besides, this is 'General Talk', where clouding the issue is a time-honoured tradition, and it's almost bad form not to. So, please, bring on those clouds. I'm curious to know what you were going to say.

Matt

I was read the riot act for using the word 'nonce', I believe by Matt or Mark. I get the two gentlemen all confused in my noodle.

Yay for the Aqualung reference!

I had never, until just now, associated 'sod' with 'sodomy'.

Since we're here, Ian Anderson used the word "dosser" in a great song called "Looking For Eden", from 1983, when he went solo (ha!) and started dithering with electronic drums and synthesizers.

Is a 'dosser' the same as a 'sod'?

And where on Earth are all those songs of Eden?
The fairy tales, the shepherds and wise men?
Just one old dosser lurching down Oxford Street
to spend his Christmas lying in the rain.

I know I could go to the misty cave of Yagooglebing, but I much prefer the answers of actual humans.

To doss is to sleep -- as in dossing on the floor, dossing at a mate's house. To doss about is to fool around. A dosser is a vagrant, which I always thought meant somebody who sleeps rough, but maybe really means 'idler'.

Thank you, Brian.

barking up the wrong tree post deleted

Not by me.

Incidentally, why is it that every incidence of name confusion on the Sphere seems to involve me? I've lost track of the number of times this has happened. I am Matt, not Mark or (less often) Martin. Likewise, the Marks and Martins of this place, lovely people as they are, are not me. I've yet to be confused with Mary, but I won't be all that surprised when it happens.

I'm wondering if I need to find a way to become more memorable.

Matt (or Mark or Martin or something)

Matt,

To avoid confusion, perhaps you should just become "Q", like that enigmatic chap in the James Bond films? :D

Jayne