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L'esprit de l'escalier or l'esprit d'escalier (literally, staircase wit) is a French term that describes the predicament of thinking of the perfect comeback too late.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as follows:

Definition:

A witty remark thought of too late, on the way home; the clever comment you wish you had delivered

Example:

"When he bragged about sleeping like a baby, I should have added the bit about waking up crying every two hours, but that's just esprit de l'escalier. At the time I just nodded and said nothing."

Is there an English term for that?

Laurel
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Mehper C. Palavuzlar
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5 Answers5

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I've only ever known it in its literal translation as staircase wit.

Barrie England
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    I agree. If there was a generally-known English equivalent, I think OP might reasonably assume a dictionary would have included it in their definition of the French term. Come to that, if we had our own equivalent we probably wouldn't use the French version anyway, so it wouldn't be in our dictionaries in the first place! – FumbleFingers Mar 28 '13 at 17:02
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English speakers sometimes call this escalator wit.

Afterwit can also be a synonym for this concept, with forewit as its antonym.

Definition of afterwit in Wiktionary:

  1. Wisdom which comes after the event.

    After-wits are dearly bought, Let thy fore-wit guide thy thought. ― Southwell.
    There is no recalling what’s gone and past; so that afterwit comes too late, when the mischief is done. — L’Estrange

  2. The lack of forethought.

    This week I am fearing afterwit as I create the outline for my next novel ... — Grace Tierney, 2010
    One good forewit is worth two afterwits. — Saying/Proverb

  3. A good comeback one thinks of after leaving a social gathering.

Mehper C. Palavuzlar
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    I've never heard the term escalator wit, and it seems to me a (possibly deliberately) bad translation of esprit d'escalier. See Ngram. – Peter Shor Dec 10 '15 at 20:09
  • @PeterShor M&W report it as such http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-words-for-intriguing-concepts/esprit-de-l'escalier.html – Mari-Lou A Dec 10 '15 at 22:02
  • @Mari-Lou A: No matter what M&W say, Ngrams shows that English speakers don't use escalator wit much at all. It's either staircase wit, afterwit, or the original French l'esprit de l'escalier. – Peter Shor Jun 07 '20 at 18:42
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"20/20 hindsight" is a common expression that can be used for your scenario - meaning that hindsight has perfect vision (20/20 vision) because you have the luxury of time to remember or formulate a better response

Definition of 20/20 hindsight from TheFreeDictionary.com: "Perfect understanding of an event after it has happened; - a term usually used with sarcasm in response to criticism of one's decision, implying that the critic is unfairly judging the wisdom of the decision in light of information that was not available when the decision was made."

"When he bragged about sleeping like a baby, I should have added the bit about waking up crying every two hours, but that's just "20/20 hindsight". At the time I just nodded and said nothing."

Edited to add definition of expression "20/20 hindsight"

Kristina Lopez
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The English term is "l'esprit d'escalier", because English is not ashamed of stealing useful phrases from any language careless enough to leave them lying around.

Rupert Morrish
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Carriage wit. As in, the situation in which you've left the soirée and mounted your carriage for the ride home and the perfect response occurs to you, only to be wasted on your footman.

Brendan Berg
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Anon
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    Do you have a reference for this, some place where it has been used or a dictionary entry? – Mitch Dec 10 '15 at 20:07