Boncer

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A person hired to keep order at a club or bar by turning away or removing unruly patrons
2. Someone employed as security at the door of a nightspot to eject troublemakers and check who enters
3. A doorman or security guard whose job is to keep rowdy people out of a pub, club or similar venue

Etymology: "Boncer" is a word with two unrelated senses, and the one most people would meet first, the Australian slang sense, is the more recent. In that sense it meant "remarkable" or "excellent", and it was later replaced by its voiced variant "bonzer", which is the form most Australian readers know. Its origin there is not one the source ties to a clear pathway, so nothing more can safely be said about where that slang sense came from. The older sense is far more concrete. In British dialect from north Hampshire, a "boncer" was a marble, the kind children shoot across the ground. Its origin is probably a variant of "bouncer", meaning a large thing, which fits the idea of a big, heavy marble that knocks others aside. The connection is a plausible guess rather than a documented link, so it should be read as the most likely explanation rather than settled fact.