Words of the day

Treppenwitz, a German word, and its French counterpart l’esprit de l’escalier.

These translate as ’stairway wit’, but the meaning is “any witty, clever remark that comes to mind too late to be useful” (wikipedia). Example: “Oh yeah, well the jerk store called AND THEY’RE RUNNING OUT OF YOU!” (wikipedia entry on that seinfeld episode).

The “stairs” in the translation is a reference to the stairs on the side of a stage as the character leaves.

We should have our own word for this in English. I don’t think that treppenwitz is well-known enough, and I’ll probably mispronounce l’esprit de l’escalier, but this sort of thing happens to me all the time. I once came up with the perfect comeback 5 years too late (seriously).