Steal my thunder: Using someone else' ideas or inventions to one's own advantage.
A few days back a very amusing thing happened. I did a post on 'Mark Twain' to honor the attention he was generating. A fellow team member got perturbed cause I had stolen her thunder. More on stealing thunder...
John Dennis, English critic and playwright, invented a new way of simulating the sound of thunder on stage and used the method in one of his plays, Appius and Virginia. Dennis "made" thunder by using "troughs of wood with stops in them" instead of the large mustard bowls usually employed. The thunder was a great success, but Dennis's play was a dismal failure. The manager at Drury Lane, where the play was performed, canceled its run after only a few performances. A short time later, Dennis returned to Drury Lane to see Shakespeare's Macbeth. As he sat in the pit, he was horrified to discover that his method of making thunder was being used. Jumping to his feet, Dennis screamed at the audience, "That's my thunder, by God! The villians will not play my play but they steal my thunder."
Source: www.phrases.co.uk, www.trivia-library.com
8 comments:
Very interesting!I am going to employ this phrase more often at workplace now! :)
hehe....very interesting...i should claim "u stole my mark"..:D
a thought, what's the etymology for plagiarism!!!not that it is relevant here but the thought just struck moi..let me go and check :)
wow!
Very smart people at work here!!
AA : we agree!!!! lol!!!
666, I like ur attempts at being discreet :)
"fellow team member"...We all know it was moi !!!
Radha, i had to occlude adjectives like 'illustrious' 'great' from my discreetness.
and now i better run for cover.
excell"a"nto!!! now u go arnd pulling my poor limb with the readers.....run, 666, run!!!!
and jas i quite liked the turn of phrase in ur comment..."employ" this phrase more often at "workplace" now
:)
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