esprit d'escalier

A form of l'esprit de l'escalier — The phenomenon when a conversational rejoinder or remark only occurs to someone after the opportunity to make it has passed.

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Meanings

nounesprit d'escalier (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of l'esprit de l'escalier.

    ‘I knew not then,’ he confessed, ‘but now I think…’ It is not necessary to follow Goad along the path taken by his esprit d'escalier to see how sheer intellectual pleasure was the driving-force behind such efforts.

    1971, Keith Thomas, “Astrology: Its Social and Intellectual Role”, in Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, →ISBN; republished London: Folio Society, 2012, →OCLC, page 317
Cite this entry
APA

esprit d'escalier. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/esprit%20d'escalier

MLA

“esprit d'escalier.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/esprit%20d'escalier. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “esprit d'escalier,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/esprit%20d'escalier.

Source: esprit d'escalier on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.