How many times have you had a conversation and after it has ended you found yourself thinking about what you should have said?
How many times someone said something to which you didn't know how to reply, the responses naturally coming to you only 5 minutes too late?
I can remember at least 10 situations when I didn't know what to say at the moment, but 5 minutes (and even hours) after the situation has passed I came up with witty, smart, eloquent, adequate.. answers. But the moment has passed, and those answers could only stay in my mind, whereas I would be making promises to myself that next time I will know better.
The French (oh, the beautiful language!) have a special expression for this. It's "esprit de l'escalier". As Wikipedia explains, the first person to think of this expression was Denis Diderot (philosopher and encyclopedist). During a dinner, someone made a remark to him, leaving him speechless, and of course, the answer came to his mind only after he "reached the end of the stairs", i.e. left the gathering. In his words, "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, such as myself, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again at the bottom of the stairs").
So the "staircase wit" or "l'esprit de l'escalier" is a word worth remembering.
How many times someone said something to which you didn't know how to reply, the responses naturally coming to you only 5 minutes too late?
I can remember at least 10 situations when I didn't know what to say at the moment, but 5 minutes (and even hours) after the situation has passed I came up with witty, smart, eloquent, adequate.. answers. But the moment has passed, and those answers could only stay in my mind, whereas I would be making promises to myself that next time I will know better.
The French (oh, the beautiful language!) have a special expression for this. It's "esprit de l'escalier". As Wikipedia explains, the first person to think of this expression was Denis Diderot (philosopher and encyclopedist). During a dinner, someone made a remark to him, leaving him speechless, and of course, the answer came to his mind only after he "reached the end of the stairs", i.e. left the gathering. In his words, "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, such as myself, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again at the bottom of the stairs").
So the "staircase wit" or "l'esprit de l'escalier" is a word worth remembering.