segue
verb

- to move smoothly and uninterruptedly from one subject, song or scene to another.

- to proceed without pause from one activity, topic, scene, or part to another.

- to make a continuous transition without interruption.

Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, American Heritage Dictionary

—

WORD ORIGIN

Unlike many English words, segue is almost unchanged from its Italian source.

Italian segue simply means “it follows.” It is the third-person singular of the verb seguire (“to follow”), which ultimately comes from Latin sequi (“to follow”).

Originally, segue was not a noun at all. It was a musical direction printed in scores, telling performers to continue directly into the next movement or piece without pausing.

English borrowed the instruction during the eighteenth century. Musicians first used it as a verb (“to segue into the next movement”), and later writers extended it far beyond music.

Today politicians segue between arguments, interviewers segue into awkward questions, presenters segue into demonstrations, and dinner guests desperately try to segue away from politics.

—

SMOOTH MOVES

"That reminds me..." is a common segue in English conversation. It links whatever comes next to whatever was just said — even when the connection is thin.

"Speaking of which..." works the same way. So does "Funny you should mention that." Both give the impression that the new topic grew out of the old one, rather than being something you'd been waiting to say for ten minutes.

Some segues are honest about themselves. "On a completely different note..." or "This has nothing to do with anything, but..." announce the jump instead of hiding it. Oddly, that works just as well. Listeners don't need the topics to connect — they just need to know the change was intentional.

Writers have their own set. "Which brings me to..." pulls the reader from one section into the next. "But there's a catch" turns an explanation into a story. Journalists lean on "Meanwhile..." to jump between scenes, and on "It wasn't always this way" to slide from present to past.

Then there are the workplace segues. "Before I forget..." lets you interrupt politely. "While I have you..." turns the end of one conversation into the start of another — the classic move of someone who really called about the second thing. And "Anyway..." is the great escape hatch: it ends any topic, however awkward, and clears the ground for a new one.

Notice what all of these have in common: they take three seconds and require no cleverness. The topics don't have to fit together. The phrase does the work. So listen for them this week — in meetings, on the radio, at dinner.

BTW, once you start noticing segues,... you’ll hear them all the time :-)

Helga & Paul Smith

—

SYNONYMS


blend into, bridge, changeover, crossfade, dovetail into, flow, flow into, glide, handover, lead into, lead-in, link, merge into, modulation, move seamlessly into, passage, pivot, SEGUE, shift, shift into, transition, transition into

—

SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“ BTW, have you noticed how frequently ‘BTW’ is used as a SEGUE?”

-----------------------
PLEASE SUPPORT US

On evenings and weekends, I research and write your daily OWAD newsletter together with Helga (my lovely wife and business partner) and our insightful daughter Jennifer. It remains FREE, AD-FREE, and ALIVE thanks to voluntary donations from appreciative readers.

If you aren't already, please consider supporting us — even a small donation, equivalent to just 1-cup-of-coffee a month, would help us in covering expenses for mailing, site-hosting, maintenance, and service.

Just head over to DonorBox:
https://donorbox.org/owad-q4-2023-5

or

Bank transfer:
Paul Smith
IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40

Important: please state as 'Verwendungszweck': "OWAD donation" and the email address used to subscribe to OWAD.

Thanks so much,

Paul Smith
(OWAD Founder)