"and nor" -- British, or foot-in-mouth?

ronbutters at AOL.COM ronbutters at AOL.COM
Wed Aug 17 21:33:58 UTC 2011


This is just a trivisl slip of the tongue or pen, not worth anyone's consideration. Most likely he actually said (or meant to) say "and/or"--just as you mistakenly wrote "and not" and "too."

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 17, 2011, at 4:55 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

> Andy Coulson ("editor of the News of the World, 2003-07") is quoted
> by the NYTimes, Aug.17, page A3 New England Edition, as having said
> in July 2009 to Parliament:
>
> "I have never condoned the use of phone hacking, and nor do I have
> any recollection of incidences where phone hacking too place."
>
> (As an aside, this is not only "I avow not" but also "I don't remember".)
>
> As Jon L. would ask, is there a community of speakers who use "and not"?
>
> I vote for foot-in-mouth, considering the use of "incidences" instead
> of "incidents".  (The possible senses of "incidence" = "incident" (in
> sense 1) are marked by the OED as Obs., and are off-target -- don't
> connote "event" -- anyway.)
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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