Luncheon. (Welsh, llonc or llwnc, a gulp; llyncu, to swallow at a gulp.)

The notion of its derivation from the Spanish once, eleven, is borrowed from the word nuncheon, i.e. nón-mete, a noon repast. Hence Hudibras:

“When, laying by their swords and truncheons,

They took their breakfasts, or their nuncheons.”

Book i. 1. lines 345, 346.

⁂ In Letter Book G, folio iv. (27 Edward II.), donations of drink to workmen are called nonechenche. (Riley: Memorials of London.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.