esprit de l'escalier

English

Noun

esprit de l'escalier (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of l'esprit de l'escalier
   • 1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, chapter XVII, in Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC, page 256:

     Yet, she had outflanked him, taken him unawares, and he had fired not one shot. 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.

French

Etymology

After Diderot in Paradoxe sur le Comédien (completed in 1778, published in 1830):

L’homme sensible, comme moi, tout entier à ce qu’on lui objecte, perd la tête et ne se retrouve qu’au bas de l’escalier.

A sensitive man like me, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, loses his head – and doesn't get it back again till he's at the bottom of the stairs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛs.pʁi d(ə) l‿ɛs.ka.lje/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -e

Noun

esprit de l’escalier m (uncountable)

1. l'esprit de l'escalier, staircase wit
   • 1905, Maurice Souriau, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre d'après ses manuscrits, page 52:

     Est-ce de l’esprit de l’escalier, mais exaspéré par la déception, par la rancune?

     Is it l'esprit de l'escalier, but exacerbated by disappointment, by resentment?

Coordinate terms

• bon mot
• mot d’esprit
• mot juste

Descendants

Descendants

• → English: l'esprit de l'escalier
• → English: staircase wit (calque)
• → German: Treppenwitz (calque)
• → Portuguese: espírito da escada (calque)
• → Russian: ле́стничный ум (léstničnyj um), остроу́мие на ле́стнице (ostroúmije na léstnice) (calque) (calque)
• → Spanish: espíritu del escalador, ingenio de la escalera (calque) (calque)
• → Yiddish: טרעפּווערטער (trepverter) (calque)