Word Watch: Neither …nor
“No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other, he [Thomas L. Friedman, a New York Times journalist] declared. And nor, he hoped, would they. …” The Week, 21 May 2022
“Scotland’s first minister is not co-hosting the event but nor can she be entirely ignored.” – Times 26 October 2021
“Most of us who have grown up since the Second World War have come to expect a steady state of prosperity … that most previous generations never imagined possible – and nor would they have expected it.” – Daily Telegraph, 18 March 2020.
The construction “…and nor …” is frequently met with now, and so is “… but nor…” when “and neither…” / “but neither…” or plain “neither” would be more acceptable.
Conventionally, “nor” is used after a negative has already been expressed. The revised 1973 edition of Partridge’s Usage and Abusage states: “Nor unpreceded by neither properly = and not, but now improperly = and no“. This suggests that “and nor” would signify “and and nor” or “and and no’ – either way, pleonastic. The equivalent of “but and no” must be wrong too, obviously.
“He didn’t really feel like a hand over hand scramble, but nor did he like the possibility that he might be giving in to weakness…” Ian McEwan, Amsterdam, 1998 III, iii. So McEwan and his compeers would be likely to insert a redundant “and” before the “nor” in these sentences: “They could not afford to send him to the University, nor did Mr Ferrars wish him to take refuge in the bosom of the Church.” (Benjamin Disraeli, Endymion (1880), ch. XIX); “It seemed natural for him to question me, nor did I mind.” (Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca, 1938, chapter IV); “I had never known him show any emotion, nor did he then.” (Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget, 1955, ch. 1.)
“There are no signs of any great outpouring of grief, nor of expensive arrangements for the burial, but nor would we necessarily find these in royal accounts” – Ian Mortimer, The Perfect King (2007). In this example, “but nor” follows a simple “nor”. In the past, the second “nor” would probably have been “neither”, and “but” omitted.
This process is typical of what has happened in many areas of the language over the past half-century. A construction that Partridge could label “improper” is now, like many things formerly unacceptable, a perfectly legitimate usage. Pedants may register their disapproval, but on balance perhaps we can celebrate a small simplification. My only reservation is that the simplification sometimes leads to ugly conjunctions of sounds, and we have learned over the years that has rarely impeded the onward march of English.
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