Treppenwitz

German (Berlin)

noun
Definitions
  • (fairly) staircase wit; l'esprit de l'escalier; a remark or rejoinder thought of only when it is too late
  • (more common) an ironic and absurd coincidence; something that, if it were not true, would seem like a bad joke

Etymology

Affix from German Treppe (stairs, stair, step, steps) + German Witz (joke, wit, wit joke).

Origin

German (Berlin)

Witz

Gloss

joke, wit, wit joke

Concept
Semantic Field

Speech and language

Ontological Category

Person/Thing

Emoji
😜

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms