ESPRIT DE L'ESCALIER Definition & Meaning

esprit de l'escalier

[ es-pree duh le-skahl-yey ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

French.

a perfect comeback or witty remark that one frustratingly comes up with only when the moment for doing so has passed:
Writers, by nature, tend to be people in whom l' esprit de l'escalier is a recurrent experience.

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First recorded in 1905–10; literally, “wit of the staircase” (i.e., after one has left the gathering)

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Examples have not been reviewed.

"Or helped him down stairs a little faster; he seems to have scented this esprit de l'escalier!"

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Staircases are apt to suggest reflections, and there are various ways of rendering the French phrase "esprit de l'escalier."

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