We've all experienced this moment before - someone says something to you and you are so overwhelmed by the comment that it leaves you speechless and you can't come up with a snappy comeback on the spot. But once you've walked away from the situation the perfect response suddenly pops into your head.
This phenomenon is referred to as Treppenwitz in German, which literally means staircase joke, because, what do you know, the witty retort usually hits you in the stairwell on your way out. Of course by then it's already too late to use it.
The term derives from the French expression "L'esprit de l'escalier," which also translates to staircase joke. No matter the language, it seems we all experience the same phenomenon. So it's surprising that the English language has yet to come up with it's own snappy word. But it does have two expressions that perfectly describe our lack of a Treppenwitz: tongue-tied and brain fart.
bsievers on October 18th, 2017 at 20:56 UTC »
Wikipedia has a weird definition for this. Apparently that's only its meaning when loaned into English?
The Yiddish trepverter ("staircase words"[4]) and the German loan translation Treppenwitz (when used in an English language context[citation needed]) express the same idea as l'esprit de l'escalier. However, in contemporary German Treppenwitz has a different meaning: It refers to events or facts that seem to contradict their own background or context. The frequently used phrase "Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte" ("staircase joke of world history") derives from the title of a book by that name by W. Lewis Hertslet[5] and means "a paradox of history".[6][7]
Mr8vb on October 18th, 2017 at 19:02 UTC »
Yeah, well The Jerk Store called, they're running out of YOU!
cobaltcollapse on October 18th, 2017 at 18:52 UTC »
Also known as L'esprit de l'escalier, or staircase wit.