I have become quite taken with a phrase I encountered a few months ago which seems to have several manifestations. The first time I heard it it was "The Spirit of the Staircase", but I have since heard "Staircase gost" and "Staircsae wit", as well.
Aparently the term comes from the French l’esprit d’escalier (or variant spellings), which is reputed to mean something like "The things you think of to say on your way out." Basically the witty come-backs that spring to mind after it is already too late to say them. I just find it deliciously French that they have a whole phrase just for that phenomena.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had come across the phrase, and if my understanding of it is correct. I had not heard it before I read Death: the Time of Your Life, a comic-book by Neil Gaiman. (Gaiman is always introducing me to weird words. In the same comic-books, he also manages to work in the definition of "myoclonic twitch") and I think I have only run across it in one other place, a poem (I think) which I cannot now locate. It’s a lovely, evocative phrase, conjuring up images of a muse-like spirit who whispers in your bitter ear all the clever things you could have said had you been quick enough. Does anyone know how the French term originated?
Edited because evocative is spelled with a "c"
