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afterwit. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
afterwit, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
afterwit in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From after- + wit.
Noun
afterwit (countable and uncountable, plural afterwits)
- Wisdom which comes after the event.
1595, Robert Southwell, “Losse in Delayes”, in Saint Peters Complaynt With Other Poems, London: Gabriel Cawood, page 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.
1894, “On the Relation of Tennyson’s Life to His Works”, in M. F. Libby, editor, Selections from Tennyson, Toronto: Copp, Clark, page 11:There is always a danger of afterwit in estimating the early achievements of men who have achieved fame […] .
- The lack of forethought.
- Antonym: forewit
- 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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