l'esprit de l'escalier

English

Borrowed from French esprit de l'escalier, with the definite article.

l'esprit de l'escalier (uncountable)

A conversational remark or rejoinder that only occurs to someone after the opportunity to make it has passed.
- 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, page 317:
  ‘I knew not then,’ he confessed, ‘but now I think…’ It is not necessary to follow Goad along the path taken by his esprit d'escalier to see how sheer intellectual pleasure was the driving-force behind such efforts.
Synonyms: afterwit, (calque) staircase wit, (neologism) retrotort

retort thought of too late

Arabic: please add this translation if you can
Chinese:
Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 馬後炮 (zh), ^{(please verify)} 马后炮 (zh) (mǎhòupào), (adjective) ^{(please verify)} 事後聰明 (zh), ^{(please verify)} 事后聪明 (zh) (shìhoù cōngming)
Czech: esprit de l'escalier m, opožděná duchaplnost f
Estonian: tagantjärgi tark olema
French: esprit de l'escalier (fr) m, esprit d'escalier (fr) m
German: Treppenwitz (de) m
Icelandic: (adjective) gáfaður eftir á
Japanese: please add this translation if you can

Korean: please add this translation if you can
Portuguese: espírito da escada m
Russian: за́дний ум m (zádnij um), ле́стничный ум m (léstničnyj um), остроу́мие на ле́стнице n (ostroúmije na léstnice)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: (slang) касна па̏ме̄т f

Roman: (slang) kasna pȁmēt f
Spanish: espíritu del escalador m, ingenio de la escalera m
Yiddish: טרעפּווערטער‎‎ n pl (trepverter)

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