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Examples
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Gelett Burgess (1866 – 1951) coined both blurb and tintiddle, though blurb is sometimes attributed to Brander Matthews.
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In the meantime I offer you “tintiddle”, another word coined by Burgess (1866 – 1951), who was an American artist, writer, critic and humorist.
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I have heard several people lament the lack of an equivalent term in English, but this lack is only apparent, for tintiddle is that term.
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Gelett Burgess (1866 – 1951) coined both blurb and tintiddle, though blurb is sometimes attributed to Brander Matthews.
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In his book Burgess Unabridged: A New Dictionary of Words You Have Always Needed (scanned here; plain text here) he defined tintiddle as:
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A few weeks ago I started writing about the origin of the word blurb, but ended up writing instead about tintiddle, also known as l’esprit de l’escalier.
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A few weeks ago I started writing about the origin of the word blurb, but ended up writing instead about tintiddle, also known as l’esprit de l’escalier.
stan commented on the word tintiddle
Gelett Burgess coined "tintiddle" in 1907, defining it as "An imaginary conversation; wit coming too late." It is equivalent to the French "l'esprit de l'escalier," meaning "the wit of the staircase" or "staircase wit".
June 12, 2009