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From: bathurst@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Bruce Bathurst)
Subject: Re: eigenvalues in j
Message-ID: <1993Jan2.025911.28803@Princeton.EDU>
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Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 02:59:11 GMT
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Did someone explain the origin of the term "nonce error"?

The one in my college dictionary isn't quite applicable.  The OED
lists three.  One is underworld slang (cant?) for sexual deviant;
but APL nouns have no gender.  Another is Middle English for "the
purpose at hand"; this meaning evolved a "temporary" connotation.

"Converting the parlour, for the nonce, into a private typing room."
   -Dickens' Dombey and Son, Ch.6.

This is a rough fit for "temporarily an error".  Perhaps nonce is an
acronym for "Not in Cervice"?

Bruce (Gypsy Scholar)
-- 
Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544
bathurst@phoenix.princeton.edu bathurst@pucc.bitnet !princeton!phoenix!bathurst
