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Nonce Word, also nonce-word [From middle english for the nanes, metanalysis of *for then anes for the one (thing), present-day for the nonce for the time being, for the work in hand. In medieval poetry, variants of the word nonce were used to complete lines, often plural and rhyming with bones or stones: ‘Eneas hymself doun layd for the nanis, / And gave schort rest vnto his wery banis’ (Gavin Douglas, Æneis, 1513).]
The term nonce-word was adopted in the preparation of the OED (1884) ‘to describe a word which is ...
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