Word of the day

My feet are freezing. I don't expect they'll thaw again til, oh, sometime next June. And that's living in Texas. I don't know if my feet ever thawed when I lived in Iowa. I first became re-acquainted with my bare feet back in 2006 when we moved back to Texas.

Any-hoo, I know it's late in the evening for such activities, but Sundays being what they are, I figure nobody really cares overmuch. Today's word is going to continue the temperature reference from yesterday.

frigiferous (adj) bringing, bearing or causing cold

Frigiferous winds blew over the desolate corn stubble.

They say we'll have 70 degree highs midweek here. Texas weather is so weird this time of year. You just never know. I mean, in Iowa, we knew. We didn't know how MUCH snow or ice or desperately cold wind, but we could count on those things nonetheless. Here? We could have six inches of snow one day and have it all melt off in balmy warmth the very next day.

I think I'll move to Fiji. I'm betting there isn't a whole lot of variability in their weather patterns...

Word of the day

Since I'm wishing for warmth, here's what I chose today, as seen on Luciferous Logolepsy:

vesuvian :relating to the volcano Vesuvius :an old-fashioned kind of match; fusee
vesuviate :to erupt; burst with heat

Okay, so maybe it isn't the kind of heat I was looking for, but warm feet would be nice nonetheless.

Word of the day

Anomie

I was reading my copy of National Review (love that magazine... love it... it always gives me at least one or two new vocabulary words to use) and the word "anomie" was used. I had absolutely no idea what it meant; the context gave me some notion, but I still wanted to find the precise meaning of it. Here's what Merriam-Webster says:

anomie : social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values; also : personal unrest, alienation, and uncertainty that comes from a lack of purpose or ideals

It's pronounced "ANNA-me" and here's a context for you:

The fraying ligature of the landscape of the United States reveals an inner geography of alienation and anomie. Living on the island of Manhattan, I daily negotiate an urban layout of practical, but identity-decimating grids -- a cityscape of harsh, inhuman right angles ... a geography that renders street encounters abrupt, curt and intrusive.
Social Media and the Architecture of Anomie, Phil Rockstroh, 7/12/2010

I love learning new words... even bleak, depressing ones like anomie. In fact, I'm going to do my best to combat the anomie I find around me today. How about you?

Speling errers ar reely jest "variant spellings"

Bad spelling 'should be accepted'

Ken Smith of Bucks New University says the most common mistakes should be accepted as "variant spellings".

Mr Smith, a criminology lecturer, said: "Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I've got a better idea.

"University teachers should simply accept as variant spellings those words our students most commonly misspell.

I wonder if he also thinks that shoplifting and underage drinking should also just be accepted as variant lifestyle choices? He IS a criminology lecturer, after all... and we should just accept those minor criminal things our students most commonly get in trouble for, right?

And how do they pronounce that?

I stumbled upon a very cool article from Genealogy Magazine's 2006 archives and thought you guys might enjoy it:

Surnames Sound a Challenge For Researchers

It's all about how Americans' pronunciation of surnames diverged a long time ago from how the names were actually spelled. I found it while searching for the correct pronunciation of "Beauchamp," since I have read soooooo many articles lately about The New Republic's military go-to guy, Scott Thomas Beauchamp. It's usually pronounced "Beecham" over on this side of the pond, apparently. The magazine folks compiled a nice list for us of names and pronunciations that aren't, well, intuitive.

I've been amused by the variation between spelling and pronunciation of proper nouns for as long as I could spell. Near the city of Paris in northeast Texas, where I graduated from high school, there's a small town called Bogata. The first time I saw it, I pronounced it like the capitol of Colombia: bo-gah-TAH. I was corrected immediately, for over there they say "buh-GO-tuh." But, I protested, it's not spelled the right way to say that. They misspelled it. Well, yeah, maybe they did. But this is how it is.

Okay.

Another local community over there is Kiomatia... pronounced ki-MISH.

In Oklahoma, we have the Washita River. Next state over, in Arkansas, they have the Ouachita National Forest. It's pronounced the same: WAH-shih-tah.

It's not a trend peculiar to Americans, though. The English have some incomprehensible ones, starting with such obvious ones as Worcestershire / Woostershir. And how in the world do they get "Sinjin" from "St. John?"

If there are any odd ones from your neck of the woods, leave 'em in the comments. I love this kind of stuff.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

Don't Get Personal
With Me, Part Two

personal pronouns after except. Just like but, except in the sense of “with the exclusion of” or “other than” is generally viewed as a preposition, not a conjunction. Therefore, a personal pronoun that follows except should be in the objective case: No one except me knew it. Every member of the original cast was signed except her.

personal pronouns after than. Grammarians have insisted since the 18th century that than should be regarded as a conjunction in all its uses. By this thinking, a sentence such as Bill is taller than Tom is really a truncated version of the sentence Bill is taller than Tom is. Accordingly, when a pronoun follows than in sentences like this, it should be in the nominative case since it is the subject of the verb that is “understood.” Thus the rule requires Bill is taller than he (not him). But when applied to sentences in which the pronoun following than is the object of an understood verb, the rule requires that the pronoun be in the objective case. Thus you must say The news surprised Pat more than me, since this sentence is considered a truncated version of The news surprised Pat more than it surprised me. The rule is logical and neat, and no harm can come from following it in formal writing, but people often don’t follow it, especially when speaking. In fact, than has been used as a preposition since the 1500s in sentences like John is taller than me. In these cases the pronoun is in the objective case where the rule would require the nominative. This construction appears in the writing of some of our most respected writers, among them Shakespeare, Johnson, Swift, Scott, and Faulkner. So if you choose to ignore the grammarian’s rule, you are in good company. If you want even more justification, remember that than is clearly treated as a preposition in the than whom construction, as in a poet than whom (not than who) no one has a dearer place in the hearts of his countrymen. Still, if you find you have written a sentence such as Mary is taller than him, don’t be surprised if some of your readers object.

between you and I. “All debts are cleared between you and I,” writes Antonio to Bassanio in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Did Shakespeare commit a blunder, writing I where the objective form me is required?

When pronouns joined by a conjunction occur as the object of a preposition such as between, according to, or like, many people use the nominative form where the traditional grammatical rule would require the objective. They say between you and I rather than between you and me, and so forth.

Shakespeare can hardly have violated a rule of formal English grammar, since he and his contemporaries studied Latin grammar, not English. In fact, the rule outlawing between you and I did not get written until the 1860s. It has since become part of standard schoolroom grammar. Writing between you and I is now widely regarded as a sign of ignorance, even though the phrase occurs quite often in speech. So don’t feel bad if you catch yourself saying it. Just remember: if you want to avoid trouble, stick to between you and me in formal speech and writing.

[to be continued]

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

Don't Get Personal
With Me, Part One

personal pronouns after as.

Your mother is just as proud as me.

said the father to the child with good grades. But should he have said, Your mother is just as proud as I?
As with similar constructions using than, there is a traditional rule stating that the pronoun following as … as … constructions must be in the nominative case (I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they), demonstrated by the fact that

She is just as proud as I.

is really a truncated version of the sentence

She is just as proud as I am.

Another way to put it would be to say that the second as functions as a conjunction, not as a preposition, in these sentences. Whatever the merits of this logic, the as me construction is very common in speech and appears regularly in the writing of highly respected writers. Moreover, you can argue that the second as is really a preposition in these constructions and demands the objective case. And there is the objection that as I constructions are overly formal, even pretentious. In short, both constructions are defensible and both are subject to attack. When you want to play it safe, use the as I construction, but throw in the verb to make it a clause:

She is just as proud as I am.

personal pronouns after forms of be.

That must be him on the phone. No, it must be he.

Traditional grammar requires the nominative form of the pronoun following the verb be:

It is I (not me).

That must be they (not them).

and so forth. Nearly everyone finds this rule difficult to follow. Even if everyone could follow it, in informal contexts the nominative pronoun often sounds pedantic and even ridiculous, especially when the verb is contracted. Who would ever say

It’s we?

But constructions like

It is me.

have been condemned in the classroom and in writing handbooks for so long that there seems little likelihood that they will ever be entirely acceptable in formal writing.

The traditional rule creates additional problems when the pronoun following be also functions as the object of a verb or preposition in a relative clause, as in I

t is not them/they that we have in mind when we talk about “crime in the streets” nowadays.

where the plural pronoun serves as both the predicate of is and the object of have. In this example, 57 percent of the Usage Panel prefers the nominative form they, 33 percent prefer the objective them, and 10 percent accept both versions. Perhaps the best strategy is to revise these sentences to avoid the problem. You can say instead

They are not the ones we have in mind.

We have someone else in mind.

and so on.

personal pronouns after but. Should you say

No one but I read the book.

or

No one but me read the book?

If but is a conjunction in these sentences, you should use the nominative form I. If but is a preposition, you should use me. So which is it—conjunction or preposition?

Although some grammarians have insisted that but is a conjunction here, they have had to admit that the objective form me is appropriate when the but phrase occurs at the end of a sentence, as in

No one has read it but me.

And in fact there is a strong case for viewing but as a preposition in all of these constructions.

For one thing, if but were truly a conjunction, you would expect the verb to agree in person and number with the noun or pronoun following but. You would then say

No one but the students have read it.

but you normally say

No one … has read it.

What is more, a conjunction cannot be moved to the end of a clause, as in

No one has read it but the students.

You can tell this because you cannot use the similar conjunction and in this way. That is, you cannot say

John left and everyone else in the class.

For these reasons it seems best to consider but as a preposition in these constructions and to use the objective forms of pronouns such as me and them in all positions:

No one but me has read it.

No one has read it but me.

These recommendations are supported by 73 percent of the Usage Panel when the but phrase precedes the verb and by 93 percent when the but phrase follows the verb.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:


Let's Come To An
Agreement Here


A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and gender. Most people have heard this grammatical rule at some time in their lives. An antecedent, of course, is a noun or pronoun referred to by a pronoun. Usually an antecedent comes before its pronoun (as in Dave played his guitar this morning) but sometimes the pronoun anticipates the antecedent (as in Although he knew he would be late, Mr. Stanton did not rush to get ready).

The problems involving agreement of person are less inherent to the pronouns themselves than created by shifts in point of view. Sometimes it is difficult to stick to the same person when using generic pronouns, such as one and you.

Problems in number agreement are often initiated by indefinite pronouns such as anyone, everybody, and somebody. These problems often involve the related issue of gender. Which pronoun should you use in a sentence such as Everyone thinks (he is/she is/they are) entitled to a raise this year? Using the plural pronoun in such constructions avoids the problem of gender bias but violates the rule of number agreement since indefinite pronouns like everyone are grammatically singular. Similar problems arise in sentences with singular antecedents of undetermined gender, such as

A good judge should never indulge (his/her/their) personal prejudices.

Perhaps the easiest solution here is to write in the plural:

Good judges should never indulge their personal prejudices.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:


Prepositions


It was John Dryden, the 17th-century poet and dramatist, who first promulgated the doctrine that a preposition may not be used at the end a sentence. Grammarians in the 18th century refined the doctrine, and the rule has since become one of the most venerated maxims of schoolroom grammar. But sentences ending with prepositions can be found in the works of most of the great writers since the Renaissance. In fact, English syntax not only allows but sometimes even requires final placement of the preposition, as in

We have much to be thankful for.

or

That depends on what you believe in.

Efforts to rewrite such sentences to place the preposition elsewhere can have comical results, as Winston Churchill demonstrated when he objected to the doctrine by saying

“This is the sort of English up with which I cannot put.”

Even sticklers for the traditional rule can have no grounds for criticizing sentences such as

I don’t know where she will end up.

or

It’s the most curious book I’ve ever run across.

because in these examples, up and across are adverbs, not prepositions. You can be sure of this because it is impossible to transform these examples into sentences with prepositional phrases. It is simply not grammatical English to say

I don’t know up where she will end.

and

It’s the most curious book across which I have ever run.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

Possessives

We all know that in English you form the possessive by adding an apostrophe and an s, or sometimes just an apostrophe, at the end of a noun. Pronouns have their own possessive forms (my, your, his, her, its, our, their). Of course, another way to indicate possession is to use a prepositional phrase using of: the property of the town.

It is important to remember that possessive constructions are often used with inanimate nouns (a stone’s throw, the water’s edge). And although we call them possessives, they often do not indicate simple possession but a number of other relations. These include source or origin (the ambassador’s letter, Hardy’s novels), description or classification (the car’s speed, the stadium’s design, a month’s salary), and even purpose (a women’s college, boys’ clothing).

Listed below are some of the more troublesome constructions.

both
“A plague on both your houses!” We know this familiar curse from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It means “a plague on the houses of both of you.” While this “both your” construction is still idiomatic, you can be more precise grammatically by saying of both. Thus you would say I gave copies of the book to the mothers of both (rather than both their mothers) or It’s the fault of both (rather than both their fault or both’s fault).

each other/one another
The possessive forms of each other and one another are written each other’s and one another’s, that is, with an apostrophe before the -s: The boys wore each other’s (not each others’) coats. They had forgotten one another’s (not one anothers’) names.

else
When a pronoun is followed by else, the possessive form is generally written with the ’s following else: That must be someone else’s (not someone’s else) book. Both who else’s and whose else are in use, but not whose else’s: Who else’s book could it have been? Whose else could it have been?

group possessive
You form the possessive for noun phrases by adding an ’s or an apostrophe at the end of the phrase: Jim and Nancy’s house, the Department of Chemistry’s new requirements, a three months’ journey. This construction gets cumbersome when the noun phrase is long, in which case you should probably use a prepositional phrase instead. Thus instead of saying the house that overlooks the bay’s property line, you should say the property line of the house that overlooks the bay.

of mine, of yours (double genitive)
People sometimes object to the “double genitive” construction, as in a friend of my father’s or a book of mine. But the construction has been used in English since the 14th century and serves a useful purpose. It can help sort out ambiguous phrases like Bob’s photograph, which could mean either “a photograph of Bob” (i.e., revealing Bob’s image) or “a photograph that is in Bob’s possession.” A photograph of Bob’s, on the other hand, can only be a photo that Bob has in his possession and may or may not show Bob’s image. Moreover, in some sentences the double genitive offers the only way to express what is meant. There is no substitute for it in a sentence such as That’s the only friend of yours that I’ve ever met, since sentences such as That’s your only friend that I’ve ever met and That’s your only friend, whom I’ve ever met are not grammatical.

whose
You can use whose as a possessive to refer to both animate and inanimate nouns. Thus you can say Crick, whose theories still influence work in laboratories around the world or Crick’s theories, whose influence continues to be felt in laboratories around the world. With inanimate nouns you can also use of which as an alternative, as in Crick’s theories, the influence of which continues to be felt in laboratories around the world. But as this example demonstrates, substituting of which for whose is sometimes cumbersome.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

Ne plus ultra

You get the knife, the bowl, and the book. Plus you get the free knife sharpener.

The use of plus as a conjunction connecting clauses or starting a sentence that emphasizes an additional thought occurs frequently in sales pitches, but it is not well established in formal writing.

The use of plus to connect nouns presents a more complicated issue. When equations involving addition are written out in words, the verb is usually singular:

Three plus two is five.

Similarly, when plus connects nouns or noun phrases, the verb is usually singular:

Their strength plus their intelligence makes them formidable opponents.

Some people would argue that in these sentences plus functions as a preposition meaning “in addition to,” but if this were true, you would be able to move the plus phrase to the beginning of the sentence, and this is clearly impossible. You cannot say

Plus their intelligence, their strength makes them formidable.

It makes more sense to view plus in these uses as a conjunction that joins two subjects into a single entity requiring a singular verb by notional agreement, just as and does in the sentence

Chips and beans is her favorite appetizer.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

Party-ciples

uses of participles. A participle is a verb form that can be used as an adjective and is used with an auxiliary verb to form tenses and, in the case of the past participle, the passive voice. The present participle ends in -ing (going, running). The past participle for many verbs ends in -ed (created, walked); other past participles have a different form, and often a different vowel, from their base form (made from make, ridden from ride, swum from swim). The present participle is used with be to indicate continuing action or state (I am going. They were laughing. We have been talking). The past participle is used with have to form past tenses (We have climbed. She had ridden. They have sung) and with be to form the passive voice (The floor is being scrubbed. The ball was kicked. The car has been driven.).

dangling participles. Participial phrases are used chiefly to modify nouns, as in

Sitting at his desk, he read the letter carefully.

where the sitting phrase modifies he. It is important to remember that readers will ordinarily associate a participle with the noun or noun phrase that is adjacent to it. Thus readers will consider a sentence such as

Turning the corner, the view was quite different.

to be an error, for the view did not do the turning. A sentence like this needlessly distracts the reader and would be better recast as

When we turned the corner, the view was quite different.

or

Turning the corner, we had a different view.

participles and absolute constructions. Be careful not to confuse a participial phrase that modifies a noun with an absolute construction that employs a participle. The difference is between sentences such as

Taking down the poster, he went inside.

and

The poster having been taken down, he went inside.

Absolute constructions can dangle where they please since by their “absolute” nature they do not modify a specific element in the rest of the sentence.

participles as prepositions. A number of expressions originally derived from participles have become prepositions, and you can use these to introduce phrases that are not associated with the immediately adjacent noun phrase. Such expressions include concerning, considering, failing, granting, judging by, and speaking of. Thus you can say without fear of criticism

Speaking of politics, the elections have been postponed.

or

Considering the hour, it is surprising that he arrived at all.

participles as adjectives. Many participles can also function as adjectives: an interesting experience, an interested customer; the surprising results, the surprised researchers. But it is often hard to tell when a participle is an adjective, especially with past participles. Linguists have a number of tests for confirming an adjective. Here are four of them:

1. Can the word be used attributively (i.e., before the noun it modifies), as in an intriguing offer.
2. Can it be used in the predicate, especially after the verb seem, as in She thought the party boring and He seems concerned about you.
3. Can it be compared, as in We are even more encouraged now and The results are most encouraging.
4. Can it be modified by very, as in They are very worried about this.

Some adjectives pass more of these tests than others and are thus more purely adjectival. Disastrous, for instance, passes tests 1, 2, and 3, but not 4. When used as adjectives, most participles pass all four tests, but modification by very is tricky.

You can tell that a past participle is really part of a passive verb—and not an adjective—when it is followed by a by prepositional phrase that has a personal agent as its object. Thus, the participle married would be part of the verb in the sentence

Chuck and Wendy were married by a bishop.

but used as an adjective in the sentence

Chuck and Wendy were happily married for about six months.

To confirm the adjectival status of a participle, try transforming the sentence to see if the participle can come before the noun:

For about six months Chuck and Wendy were a happily married couple.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:


Why, I oughta...




Ought is an auxiliary verb that usually takes to with its accompanying verb:

We ought to go.

Sometimes the accompanying verb is dropped if the meaning is clear:

Should we begin soon?

Yes, we ought to.

In questions and negative sentences, especially those with contractions, to is also sometimes omitted:

We ought not be afraid of the risks involved.

Oughtn’t we be going soon?

This omission of to, however, is not common in written English. Like must and auxiliary need, ought to does not change to show past tense:

He said we ought to get moving along.

Usages such as

He hadn’t ought to come.

and

She shouldn’t ought to say that.

are common in many varieties of American English. They should be avoided in written English, however, in favor of the more standard variant ought not to.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

Or

When all the elements in a series connected by or are singular, the verb they govern is singular:

Tom or Jack is coming.

Beer, ale, or wine is included in the charge.

When all the elements are plural, the verb is plural. When the elements do not agree in number, some people say that the verb should agree in number with the nearest element:

Tom or his sisters are coming.

The girls or their brother is coming.

Cold symptoms or a headache is the usual first sign.

But others object that these constructions are inherently illogical and that the only solution is to revise the sentence to avoid the problem of agreement:

Either Tom is coming or his sisters are.

The first sign is usually cold symptoms or a headache.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:


Only The Lonely



Sometimes it seems that only only causes trouble. Because the adverb only can change the meaning of a sentence depending on where it is put, you have to be careful where you put it. Consider how the placement of only affects the meaning of the following examples:

Dictators respect only force; they are not moved by words.

Dictators only respect force; they do not worship it.

She picked up the receiver only when he entered, not before.

She only picked up the receiver when he entered; she didn’t dial the number.

In general, it’s a good policy to put only next to the word or words it modifies. Sticklers insist that this rule for placement of only should always be followed, but sometimes it sounds more natural for only to come earlier in the sentence, and if the context is sufficiently clear, there’s no chance of being misunderstood. Thus, the rule requires you to say

We can come to an agreement only if everyone is willing to compromise.

But you can say more naturally, with slightly different emphasis and with no risk of misunderstanding,

We can only come to an agreement if everyone is willing to compromise.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:


"One" Really IS
a Singular Sensation!


In formal usage, the pronoun one is sometimes used as a generic pronoun meaning “anyone”:

One would hope that train service could be improved.

The informal counterpart of one is you:

You never know what to expect from her.

Trouble arises when you use one in a series of sentences. You must choose a relative pronoun to refer back to one. You can of course use one and one’s repeatedly, as in

One tries to be careful about where one invests one’s money.

But in a sequence of sentences this may start to become tedious. A traditional alternative has been to use he, him, and his:

One tries to be careful about his investments.

This has the drawback of raising the specter of gender bias. Because of these problems, the temptation may arise to switch to you, but this will undoubtedly be distracting to your readers. It’s better to use the same generic pronoun throughout.

When constructions headed by one appear as the subject of a sentence or relative clause, there may be a question as to whether the verb should be singular or plural. The sentence

One of every ten rotors was found defective.

is perfectly grammatical, but sometimes people use plural verbs in such situations, as in

One of every ten rotors have defects.

In an earlier survey, 92 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the singular verb in such sentences.

Constructions such as one of those people who pose a different problem. Many people argue that who should be followed by a plural verb in these sentences, as in

He is one of those people who just don’t take “no” for an answer.

Their thinking is that the relative pronoun who refers to the plural noun people, not to one. They would extend the rule to constructions with inanimate nouns, as in

The sports car turned out to be one of the most successful products that were ever manufactured in this country.

But the use of the singular verb in these constructions is common, even among the best writers. In an earlier survey, 42 percent of the Usage Panel accepted the use of the singular verb in such constructions. It’s really a matter of which word you feel is most appropriate as the antecedent of the relative pronoun—one or the plural noun in the of phrase that follows it. Note also that when the phrase containing one is introduced by the definite article, the verb in the relative clause must be singular:

He is the only one of the students who has (not have) already taken Latin.

Constructions using one or more or one or two always take a plural verb:

One or more cars were parked in front of the house each day this week.

One or two students from our department have won prizes.

Note that when followed by a fraction, one ordinarily gets a plural verb:

One and a half years have passed since I last saw her.

The fraction rule has an exception in that amounts are sometimes treated as singular entities:

One and a half cups is enough sugar.

Note also that the plural rule does not apply to these one-plus-a-fraction constructions that are introduced by the indefinite article. These are always singular:

A year and a half has passed since I last saw her.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

Nothingness

According to the traditional rule, nothing is invariably treated as a singular, even when followed by an exception phrase containing a plural noun:

Nothing except your fears stands (not stand) in your way.

Nothing but roses meets (not meet) the eye.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:



NOT!




You should be careful where you put not and other negatives in a sentence in order to avoid ambiguity. The sentence

All classes are not open to enrollment

could be taken to mean either

“All classes are closed to enrollment”

or

“Not all classes are open to enrollment.”

Similarly, the sentence

Kim didn’t sleep until noon

could mean either

“Kim went to sleep at noon”

or

“Kim got up before noon.”

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:


Neither Snow
Nor Rain
Nor Heat
Nor Gloom Of Night
Stays These
Couriers From The
Swift Completion Of
Their Appointed Rounds


The rules for using nor are neither simple nor easy to spell out. When using neither in a balanced construction that negates two parts of a sentence, you must use nor, not or, in the second part. Thus you must say

He is neither able nor (not or) willing to go.

Similarly, you must use nor (not or) when negating the second of two negative independent clauses:

He cannot find anyone now, nor does he expect to find anyone in the future.

Jane will never compromise with Bill, nor will Bill compromise with Jane.

Note that in these constructions nor causes an inversion of the auxiliary verb and the subject (does he … will Bill …). However, when a verb is negated by not or never, and is followed by a negative verb phrase (but not an entire clause), you can use either or or nor:

He will not permit the change or (or nor) even consider it.

In noun phrases of the type no this or that, or is actually more common than nor:

He has no experience or interest (less frequently nor interest) in chemistry.

Or is also more common than nor when such a noun phrase, adjective phrase, or adverb phrase is introduced by not:

He is not a philosopher or a statesman.

They were not rich or happy.

Today's English lesson

From the American Heritage Book of English Usage:

I'll Have None of That!

“… and then there were none.”

The closing words of this well-known nursery rhyme should dispel the notion that none can only take a singular verb. People opposing the plural use base their argument on the fact that none comes from the Old English word an, meaning “one.” But the citational evidence against restricting none is overwhelming. None has been used as both a singular and plural pronoun since the ninth century. The plural usage appears in the King James Bible as well as the works of John Dryden and Edmund Burke and is widespread in the works of respected writers today.

Of course, the singular usage is perfectly acceptable. Whether you should choose a singular or plural verb depends on the effect you want. You can use either a singular or a plural verb in a sentence such as

None of the conspirators has (or have) been brought to trial.

However, none can only be plural when used in sentences such as

None but his most loyal supporters believe (not believes) his story.