Q. When did people begin to forget how to spell segue?
A. Apparently in 2001, by which time some of us had hoped to be having our own personal space odysseys, but without the nefarious HAL computer.
Instead, we got the Segway® Personal Transporter, and segue – a fine old word relating to transitions rather than transporters – came to be written with disturbing frequency as segway.
If you’re writing about a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transportation vehicle, that’s a Segway.
Otherwise, it’s a segue.
This post was prompted by the sight of a truck advertising Segway two-wheeled vehicles. Coincidentally, we were on our way to a shop to buy spare tubes for a bicycle, the ultimate in personal transportation and one of the true wonders of the world.
For the record, Segway is a registered trademark of Segway Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
The Smith Compound 