E-WOTD: Non sequitur

Blue on May 24 2006 at 7:56 pm | Filed under: WOTD - English

A conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement.
Politicians, and people trying to avoid the main subject commonly use non sequiturs.
Latin: literally ‘it does not follow.’
Example: “Is XYZ constitutional?” and the answer is “Well, polls show that most people favor XYZ. In a recent study, in fact, 87% of respondents support XYZ.”