L’esprit de l’escalier or esprit d'escalier (staircase wit) is thinking of a clever comeback when it is too late. The phrase can be used to describe a riposte to an insult or any witty remark that comes to mind too late to be useful—after one has left the scene of the encounter. The phenomenon is usually accompanied by a feeling of regret at not having thought of it when it was most needed or suitable.

The German word treppenwitz and the Yiddish word trepverter are used to express the same idea.

This name for the phenomenon comes from French encyclopedist Denis Diderot’s description of such a situation in his Paradoxe sur le comédien.^[1] .During a dinner at the home of statesman Jacques Necker, a remark was made to him which left him speechless at the time because, he explains, 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, becomes confused and can only think clearly again [when he gets to] the bottom of the stairs.^ All other methods, especially pressure derived methods like espresso, need professional level kit which is too big and costly for homes.

• Hollywood Myths! | Word Magazine 17 September 2009 0:00 UTC www.wordmagazine.co.uk [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^ They find it very funny as you can't hit the side of a barn firing like that.and a lot of would be gangstas think it's the only way to shoot.

• Hollywood Myths! | Word Magazine 17 September 2009 0:00 UTC www.wordmagazine.co.uk [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

“The bottom of the stairs” refers to the architecture of the kind of hôtel particulier or mansion he was invited to. In such houses, the reception rooms were located on the étage noble, the noble storey, upstairs on the French first (North American second) floor, so that to have reached the bottom of the stairs means to have left the gathering in question.

.Diderot's fellow-philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau also recognised his own affliction with l’esprit de l’escalier, staircase wit.^ L'esprit de l'escalier - stairway wit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier .

• Hollywood Myths! | Word Magazine 17 September 2009 0:00 UTC www.wordmagazine.co.uk [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

In his autobiographical book Confessions he blamed such social blunders and missed opportunities for turning him into a misanthrope, and reassured himself that he was better at 'conversations by mail'.

The German word treppenwitz and the Yiddish word trepverter are used to express the same idea. One prominent example of the German term is W. Lewis Hertslet's 1882 book Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte ("Staircase wit of world history").^[2]

The concept appears often in popular works. "The Comeback" episode of the TV series Seinfeld had staircase wit as its theme.

Author Chuck Palahniuk's infamous short story "Guts," included in his novel Haunted, features a detailed explanation of staircase wit.

.The French film Ridicule – in which the characters maintain their social standing through displays of wit – features a character on his way home from a social engagement who laments his failure to boost his standing by delivering a well-timed joke.^ In films you will encounter a whole variety of 'characters' who scheme and manipulate their way through 'the system'.

• Hollywood Myths! | Word Magazine 17 September 2009 0:00 UTC www.wordmagazine.co.uk [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^[3]