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Pooh-Bah
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This phenomenon, called "~", comes from the French expression esprit d'escalier, which was first introduced to AWAD subscribers in April 2005--Weekly Themes Bulletin
I had never heard the expression and getting only 502 hits I wonder whether it's a neologism--Thanks anyone
Last edited by dalehileman; 01/23/2006 3:39 PM.
dalehileman
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addict
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addict
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The original French phrase at least 200 years old, see http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-esp1.htm so there has probably been some English translation of it for almost as long whether this exact phrase or not, I don't know.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Staircase wit is a calque (or loan translation) of German Treppenwitz which in turn is a calque of French esprit d'escalier. I recently bought a humorous 19th century history book called Treppenwitz der Geschichte (Staircase wit of History), written in German by William Lewis Hertslet (German-born Briton). It has been expanded by later authors, and I am slowly reading it.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Sorry, Myr, I should have acknowledged it as coming from an old French word but sometimes an old expression makes a recent comeback, often with a slightly new meaning; in which case it qualifies as a neologism. I thought this might apply to "~" as often when you don't find a term in OneLook that's either because it's very obscure and technical or has a new and recent meaning. Also I did find it in UrbanDict, suggesting its status as a comeback in the realm of slang
Another possible example of such a return is "ave (ah vay)", Latin/Old-English for hail, or greetings (as in ~ Maria). It seems to be making a comeback in expressions like "~, my friend"
Last edited by dalehileman; 01/23/2006 4:34 PM.
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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staircase wit (1390 ghits) has several other forms; to wit: afterwit - 614 stairwit - 32 treppenwitz - 264000 esprit de l'escalier 198000 esprit d'escalier - 42600 wit of the stairs -142 wit of the staircase - 31000
Last edited by tsuwm; 01/23/2006 5:36 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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and all the way back to here: 2001
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whether English borrowed / translated staircase wit from the French or the German, I have been unable to discover. Most of the online articles that talk about l'esprit d'escalier attribute it to Diderot in his Paradoxe sur le comédien, a play which, though it was written in 1773, was not published until 1830. Kluge, in his etymological German dictionary, cites Treppenwitz as early as 1828. He says that it is a calque of the French. (Interesting word-aside: Gammillscheg, in his etymological French dictionary, poitns out that escalier is a loanword from Provençal; the original French form of Vulgar Latin *scalarium is echalier.)
L'âme sensible a « l'esprit d'escalier » -- seul l'homme froid sait trouver sur le champ la réplique appropriée.
[Fixed a solecism.]
Last edited by zmjezhd; 01/23/2006 11:15 PM.
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stranger
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stranger
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Oscar Wilde said" repartee is insult in evening dress"
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>>Oscar Wilde said<<
To whom?
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Pooh-Bah
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Thanks guys. Thus consensus has it that the expression as used in English goes back to the early 1900's; so there's no way it could be called a neologism
dalehileman
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Pooh-Bah
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Cochon d'escalier: when you finally come up with a good hogwash definition after the candidates have all been posted.
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Quote:
Cochon d'escalier: when you finally come up with a good hogwash definition after the candidates have all been posted.
 
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Pooh-Bah
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...not a neologism, but not being familiar with it, considering how old I find myself, would it be incorrect to ask whether the expression might be making a comeback--thanks all
dalehileman
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
… whether the expression might be making a comeback …
Might could be. With the explosion in communication that is the Web all kinds of little used things are suddenly become commonly known.
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