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stranger
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stranger
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Many years ago a college professor of mine told us the word that describes "knowing the right thing to say after the right time to say it has passed." I remembered it for about 5 seconds and then, whoooosh!, out of the brain it went. Does ANYONE know what that word might be????
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Joined: Jul 2000
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What the French call "esprit d'escalier" or "l'esprit de l'escalier", ie the witty saying (or bon mot) that only comes to mind too late. From the French philosopher Diderot, <Paradoxe sur le comedien>. Sorry I can't work out how to do pronunciation accents.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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broadly, ess-SPREE dess-kahl-YAY
broadly translated, wit of the staircase
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations:"An untranslatable phrase, the meaning of which is that one only thinks on one's way downstairs of the smart retort one might have made in the drawing room."
on a related note: afterwit - wisdom or perception that comes after it can be of use
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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"An untranslatable phrase, the meaning of which is that one only thinks on one's way downstairs of the smart retort one might have made in the drawing room."
now this is one i can use, since i NEVER think of the smart retort until it's too late.
mind you, it's not on the stairs, it's usually after a couple of whiskies back at home.
esprit de l'esprit?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome aBoard, reeses!
Are you related to the candy, by any chance?
(And if you are, will you adopt me?)
Anyway--don't "tritz" as you drink your spirits, going
either up or down the stairs!
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I know a few people with the tendency to make a witty and barbed comment rather too readily - they'd benefit from a dose of esprit d'escalier. Is there a single word to describe that, I wonder?
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Joined: Jul 2000
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<Sorry I can't work out how to do pronunciation accents.>
what i really meant was that i couldn't figure out how to put in the acutes, graves, cedillas, etc.
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Joined: Jul 2000
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.........and i've always wondered what you call the "O" with a diagonal line through it that you get in Swedish, Norwegian, etc./???????????
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Joined: Jul 2000
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oh look I'm a newbie!!!!!!!!
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Joined: Aug 2000
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Aug 2000
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"esprit d'escalier"!!!
This is not exactly what I was looking for---it's better! Being of Cajun descent, I much prefer the French phrase to the word the professor actually gave us which was "afterwit". Thanks y'all for the great input!
P.S. How does one move from being "stranger" (than what?) to "newbie", etc...?
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