InterCultural Word of the Week! L’esprit d’escalier

Dom Tidey EuRA C.O.O.

L’esprit d’escalier

This wonderful French phrase describes that incredibly annoying feeling of thinking up the best cutting putdown or the funniest reposte in answer to someone, five minutes too late!  Literally meaning “staircase wit”, the phrase is thought to have been coined by the 18th century philosopher and wordsmith Denis Diderot, chief editor of the Encylopaedie.  He found he could only think of the best responses after walking away from an argument down the stairs (escalier) on the way out. 

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Dominic Tidey is the C.O.O. of EuRA, the European Relocation Association.  EuRA is the professional industry body for relocation providers and affiliated services. As a non-profit organisation EuRA aims to promote the benefits of a professionally managed relocation to companies with globally mobile employees.