Not Or

A useful little word has been languishing of late, disappearing even.

Maybe you can spot its omission/replacement in the following sentence I came across in Tuesday’s guardian. (That lower case g is still really, really annoying, by the way.)

“Stalwarts are noticeable by their absence: there is no John Terry, perhaps conveniently, or Rio Ferdinand in the ranks.”

Since Rio Ferdinand was not in the England squad for the game concerned, that “or” ought, of course, to be “nor.”

I have noticed frequently of late many lists of negative choices/options which have “or” inserted between them. I picked the above quote only as the most recent.

If a choice or option following a negative is also “not” then “nor” is more appropriate than “or.”

The negative is not or, it is nor.

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