Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: segue.

segue. “Segue” is a noun (meaning “a seamless transition”) and an intransitive verb (meaning “to transition smoothly”). (It’s also a transitive verb, but only in music.) The misspelling *"segway" (except in the trademarked company name) is particularly embarrassing — e.g.: o “[Barack Obama] applauded the work of junior Joe Pearson, of Barrington, who works under lead biodiesel research Professor Ihab Farag. It was a good segway [read ‘segue’] to Obama’s own proposal that would reduce the amount of carbon in the fuel Americans pump into their tanks.” “Obama, in Nashua, Pledges to Get U.S. Out of War,” Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.), 21 Apr. 2007, at A2. o “For almost 30 years, Larry Monroe has been spinning records and CDs on KUT-FM radio . . . . Monroe’s signature is the ‘segway’ [read ‘segue’]. He takes pride in piecing together creative set lists in which the songs are united by theme, a condition of heart or climate, or an artist’s affinity for a single word in a refrain.” Brad Buchholz, “Sharing the Language of Dylan,” Austin Am.-Statesman, 13 Sept. 2007, at E1. Language-Change Index — *"segway" for “segue”: Stage 1. *Invariably inferior forms. ——————– Quotation of the Day: “Every foreign verb, adjective, and adverb operates on the English plan. Only a few dozen foreign nouns retain their original plurals.” Harry R. Warfel, “Dictionaries and Linguistics” (1961), in Readings in Applied English Linguistics 444, 446 (Harold Byron Allen ed., 2d ed. 1964).
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