Word of the Day

Oh, my heavens... I suffer from this all the time! I didn't know there was a word for it.

esprit d'escalier (e-SPREE des-kal-i-YE) noun, also esprit de l'escalier

Thinking of a witty remark too late; hindsight wit or afterwit.
Also such a remark.

[From French esprit de l'escalier, from esprit (wit) + escalier (stairs).]

We're all witty. It's just that many of us think of our clever remarks a bit
too late. The French call it the staircase wit, indicating that one thought
of that perfect retort on his or her way out.

"I can think of hard, tough, one-line put-downs, but only after the person
concerned has left the room. (NB: this affliction, esprit de l'escalier,
is one of the principal reasons why people become writers.)"
Simon Barnes; Glitzy Game Gets Line Not Length All Wrong; The Times
(London, UK); Jun 13, 2003.

I think this is also how the expression "Yo Mama" entered the vernacular.

"Oh, how I regret in the night
With pangs that will never abate,
The brilliantly crushing retort
I think of...a little too late!"
~Rebecca McCann