naught. Compare OUGHT under [AUGHT].
need, needs: As an adverb need is now obsolete; needs means “necessarily.” Do not say “as need he must,” say, rather, “as needs he must.”
neglect, negligence: The meanings of these words are sometimes confused. Neglect is the act of failing to perform something, as a duty or task, to leave undone; negligence is the habitual omission of that which should be done. Negligence is a trait of character while neglect may result from preoccupation. Fernald in “Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions,” says: “Neglect is transitive, negligence is intransitive; we speak of neglect of his books, friends, or duties, in which case we could not use negligence.”
negociate, negotiate: The first, now obsolete, was the spelling formerly in vogue; the second is the correct spelling of to-day.
neither, either: For “none” and “any one,” is not the best usage; “That he [Shakespeare] wrote the plays which bear his name we know; but ... we do not know the years ... in which either (correctly, any one) of them was first performed”; “Peasant, yeoman, artisan, tradesman, and gentleman could then be distinguished from one another almost as far as they could be seen. Except in cases of unusual audacity, neither (correctly, no one, or none) presumed to wear the dress of his betters.”
neither, nor: In considering these words the Standard Dictionary says: “As disjunctive correlatives, each accompanied by a singular nominative, often incorrectly followed by a plural verb form; as, ‘neither he nor I were (correctly was) there.’” Neither, that is, not either, means not the one nor the other of two. “Through diligence he attained a position which he neither aspired to nor coveted”—the proper correlative to use here is nor.
nerve: A slang term sometimes used as a substitute for “impudence,” “over-assurance” or “independence,” any one of which is preferable.
never, not: While literary authority sanctions the use of never for not in cases where a lapse of considerable time is thought of, as, “I shall be there—never fear” (for do not fear now, or at any time in the interim, that I shall disappoint you), it does not justify its use in a sentence where the time referred to is momentary or short. The emphatic use of this adverb in the sense of not a single one, not at all, is perfectly good, as instanced by Coleridge—“And never a saint took pity on my soul in agony.” But the usage will not sanction an extension to things which, from their very nature, could take place—as, say, death—but once. Thus, do not say “Robert Fulton never invented the steamboat”; say, rather, “Robert Fulton did not invent the steamboat.” “Paul Jones was never born in the United States” is incorrect. Say “... was not born in the United States.” Do not say “I met him to-day but he never mentioned the subject.” Say, rather “... but he did not mention the subject.”