segway

When I first heard of the word, I was saying it in real life, imagining it to be spelled segway and reading it online as segue and just not connecting that they were the same word.

Nothing to apologize for, c_b. I had forgotten about my own list until yours showed up. They complement each other nicely.

Ooh! And skipvia has a list just like it, but much more recent: Say What?. Sorry about that skipvia. Go see skipvia's page, everyone.

I'm chained_bear and I approve this message.

Saaay, thanks! I just added some. :-)

Isn't there a list somewhere of words frequently subject to hilarious mispronunciations? *rummages*

Oh, shit. Yeah, it's mine! Here. I'm going to make it a public list, so go add your most hilarious misunderstandings of pronunciation!

Mollusque, "anus" as a plural of "anu"? What a hilarious misunderstanding!

I know someone who pronounces crudite as CREW-dite, no matter what. I don't have the heart to correct her anymore. And then there's the friend who deliberately mispronounces words (strange sense of humor), so that I find myself pausing every time I use said words to be sure I haven't picked up the mispronunciations.

You can embarrass yourself with gazebo as well...

Were you feeling hungry, c_b? Reminds me of the time I pronounced canapes with only two syllables. That had a former girlfriend and her sister rolling on the floor.

But my best word blunder (thus far) was challenging anus in Scrabble, thinking it was the plural of the "anu", which I knew wasn't in The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary.

Me too, mollusque--only we weren't playing jotto, and the word I mispronounced was intravenous.

Since seque basically means a way to transition from one segment (of a topic, scene, etc.) to another, it's logical that you'd think it would be spelled segway. I learned the term in film school, back when we actually used film...

Don't feel bad, John. The first time I ever said "segue", I pronounced it "seeg". I was playing jotto. My opponent burst out laughing that his verbophile friend should err so egregiously. (At least I was right that it was his target word.)

Only just now did I realize that the name Segway(tm) is a play on words.

I feel dumb.

skipvia is correct. Segway is a brand name. Segue is the transition.

Actually, shouldn't this be segue? A Segway is a scooter of sorts.

"To segway: Making a smooth transition to a different topic during a conversation." #