ponce

Uncertain, but probably an aphetic form of French alphonse (“kept man”), from the male given name Alphonse. Also sometimes connected to pounce or French pensionnaire (“pensioner, person living without working”).

• IPA^(key): /pɒns/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒns

ponce (plural ponces)

1. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Commonwealth, derogatory, slang) A man living off another's earnings, especially a woman's.
   1. Synonym of kept man. [1859]
   2. Synonym of pimp, especially one hired by a prostitute as a tout, bodyguard, and driver. [1872]
2. (British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, slang) Synonym of poof: an effeminate male homosexual; any similarly effeminate man. [1932]
   • 2000, Sexy Beast (motion picture), spoken by Don Logan (Ben Kingsley):

     Thanks Don, see you Don, off to sunny Spain now Don, fuck off Don. Lying in your pool like a fat blob laughing at me, you think I'm gonna have that? You really think I'm gonna have that, ya ponce.

• (kept man): cicisbeo, sugar baby
• (pimp): fleshmonger, hustler, mack; see also Thesaurus:pimp
• (effeminate male homosexual): fairy, nelly; see also Thesaurus:male homosexual
• (effeminate man): cockney, girlyman, quiche-eater; see also Thesaurus:effeminate man

• ponce wheel
• poncy

ponce (third-person singular simple present ponces, present participle poncing, simple past and past participle ponced)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang)

1. To act as a pimp.
2. (by extension) To try to get rid of or sell something.
3. To borrow (something) from somebody without returning it.
4. To cadge.
5. (derogatory) To behave in a posh or effeminate manner.
   • 1992, Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide:

     The interior was warm and dim, cluttered with flying brass pigs and poncing felt mannequins.

• (to act as a pimp): hustle, whore out; see also Thesaurus:pimp out

From French panse (“belly”).

ponce (plural ponces)

1. (Louisiana) The stomach of a pig, especially when stuffed as chaudin (a Louisianan food).
   • 1973, Mercedes Vidrine, Louisiana Lagniappe, Claitor's Law Books and Publishing, →ISBN, page 23:

     STUFFED "PONCE"
     1 small hog ponce
     3 lbs . ground pork
     1 large bell pepper, chopped
     1 large onion head chopped
     […]

   • 2016, George Graham, Acadiana Table: Cajun and Creole Home Cooking from the Heart of Louisiana, Harvard Common Press, →ISBN, page 258:

     […] before Escoffier and the five mother sauces, even before Brillat-Savarin, French Acadian cooks in South Louisiana kitchens prepared ponce.

• Copen, NOPEC

From Latin pūmex (via a Late Latin pōmex).

• IPA^(key): /pɔ̃s/

• Audio

  (file)

ponce f (plural ponces)

1. pumice
2. (Quebec) hot alcoholic beverage made with gin or rum

• poncer
• poncif

• “ponce”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• poncio

Borrowed from English punch, from Hindi पाँच (pā̃c, “five”), because of the drink's original five ingredients (spirits, water, lemon juice, sugar, and spice), from Sanskrit पञ्चन् (páñcan).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɔn.t͡ʃe/
• Rhymes: -ɔntʃe
• Hyphenation: pòn‧ce

ponce m (uncountable)

1. punch (beverage)

• ponce in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana