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Once is from the Middle English "anes", meaning "one".

Nonce is from "then anes", meaning "the one".

The "-n" got smooshed into the latter word, to become "nonce", rather like "an ewt" became "newt".

It’s also UK slang for peadophile, so be careful that everyone understands you are talking about cryptography not sex offenders if you use the word in public as there could be a nasty misunderstanding!

There's a lot of vocabulary like that. I've had conversations about ensuring a daemon reaped zombie children in public before we realized what it sounded like.

Then there's a lot of master/slave terminology.

Is the term that old? I was told it literally meant N(umber)once.

Yes, the construction "for the nonce" goes back to the Middle Ages. The concept of a "nonce word" goes back to 1884, according to this article.

https://www.dailywritingtips.com/nonce-words-for-the-nonce-a...

I'm not necessarily arguing there's shared etymology, but consider 'for the nonce' - it's not merely a made up word used exclusively in cryptography.

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