Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Segue v/s Dovetail v/s Communicating

Yesterday I used the word 'segue' in a conversation with someone who didn't have a clue what that meant. This certain someone is not stupid. Far from it. He happens to be one of the more intelligent people I have known. Why then do people like me use words like 'segue'?

Do people stop communicating and start showing off while trying to communicate? What does the word 'segue' say about the person using it? Does it betray an inferiority complex? Couldn't I have said exactly what I wanted to say without using the word 'segue' to say it?

Other words like 'segue' include 'genre' (pronounced the way the French do it), seminal, hoi poloi and a few others that look really good on paper but just end up making the people you're trying to have a conversation with uncomfortable if you use them in the conversation.

The problem is I'm so smart that I think saying 'transition' instead of 'segue' is saying something apart from 'segue'. Now how dumb does that make me?

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