non-sequitur

English

Verb

non-sequitur (third-person singular simple present non-sequiturs, present participle non-sequituring, simple past and past participle non-sequitured)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, rare) To commit a non sequitur; to make a statement that does not logically follow a previous statement.
    • 2009, Chris Walton, “Rather Nice Horn”, in Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works, Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, →ISBN, page 296:
      Schoeck had long been complaining of the rapidity of technical developments in the brave new world of postwar Europe (when driving past the new Zurich airport once with Alma Staub, he had non-sequitured in despair: “There's no wonder that all culture is going to the dogs when you can get in here and get out in Chicago the next morning”).11

Noun

non-sequitur (plural non-sequiturs)

  1. Alternative form of non sequitur.
    • 1994 April 7, Edward Luttwak, “Why Fascism is the Wave of the Future”, in London Review of Books, volume 16, number 07, →ISSN:
      It is only mildly amusing that nowadays the standard Republican/Tory after-dinner speech is a two-part affair, in which part one celebrates the virtues of unimpeded competition and dynamic structural change, while part two mourns the decline of the family and community ‘values’ that were eroded precisely by the forces commended in part one. Thus at the present time the core of Republican/Tory beliefs is a perfect non-sequitur.
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