afterwit

• after-wit

From after- +‎ wit.

afterwit (countable and uncountable, plural afterwits)

1. Wisdom which comes after the event.
   • 1595, Robert Southwell, “Losse in Delayes” in Saint Peters Complaynt With Other Poems, London: Gabriel Cawood, p. 50,

     After wits are dearely bought, / Let thy fore-wit guide thy thought.

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange (translator), Fables of Æsop, London: R. Sare et al., Fable 162, “A Nightingale and a Bat,”

     There’s No Recalling of what’s Gone and Past; so that After-Wit comes too Late when the Mischief is Done.

   • 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Volume 1, Chapter 12, p. 63,

     Trust me, dear Yorick, this unwary pleasantry of thine will sooner or later bring thee into scrapes and difficulties, which no after-wit can extricate thee out of.

   • 1894, M. F. Libby (ed.), Selections from Tennyson, Toronto: Copp, Clark, “On the Relation of Tennyson’s Life to His Works,” p. 11,

     There is always a danger of afterwit in estimating the early achievements of men who have achieved fame […] .

2. The lack of forethought.

   Antonym: forewit

3. A good comeback, retort one thinks of only after the end of discussion or after leaving a social gathering.

   Synonyms: l'esprit de l'escalier, staircase wit, (neologism) retrotort

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