esprit de l'escalier

[ es-pree duh le-skahl-yey ]

noun

, French.

1. 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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of esprit de l'escalier¹

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

Example Sentences

Esprit de l'escalier—it was as he went upstairs that he saw how he might yet have snatched from her, if not the victory, the palm.

From Project Gutenberg