Non-sequitur or a non-sequitur is a statement or concept that does not logically follow the preceding statement. Like many words, it is derived from the Latin “non sequitur,” meaning “It does not follow.” Examples in sentences help understand its use.
“We were discussing salad dressing, and Sally suddenly threw in some non-sequitur conversation about her cat.”
“George’s outburst of non-sequitur conclusions about the rise of quantum computing had nothing to do with our discussion of football and left us all scratching our heads.”
“The Congressman tried to use some non-sequitur arguments to dismiss wasteful spending.”
In the United States, you rarely hear the word “gobsmacked.” I first encountered it while watching British home improvement shows. The meaning becomes apparent when taken in the context of the shows and most often arises when someone is surprised or overwhelmed by something they experience. Specifically, it means to be overwhelmed with wonder or surprise.
Here in America, it is often replaced with overwhelmed, astounded, speechless, or other words describing shock. But gobsmacked is a good word to drop in conversation to display a little British class or generate some discussion.
“I was gobsmacked when I saw the size of the pool they had added to the backyard.”
“The quality of the workmanship on the new addition was so high that I was gobsmacked when I saw it.”
“Everyone in attendance at the concert was gobsmacked when the child prodigy played the violin.”
Let us put them together in some interesting sentences.
“She was gobsmacked when he started talking about penguins in the middle of their serious conversation about car tires, a complete non-sequitur that left everyone puzzled.”
“The professor’s non-sequitur about her pet monkey left the class gobsmacked since they were in the middle of a discussion about quantum mechanics.”
“He was gobsmacked when her non-sequitur about ice cream trucks disrupted his confession of misappropriation of funds.”
