Life in the Cheese Drawer

welcome, KABLPOMO! it’s word wednesday, so let’s get our etymology on!
today’s phrase: steal one’s thunder. we’ve all run into a person who’s done this. we’re doing our thing, then someone else comes along and takes it away and uses it as their own. but where did it come from?
back in the early 1700s, this playwright named john dennis wrote a play that was produced in london. he also invented a new way of creating the sound of thunder for the play (there were many methods). 
the play, unfortunately, was unsuccessful  and closed. the thunder-creating method was NOT unsuccessful. soon after, it was used in a production of macbeth. apparently mr. dennis was a little perturbed by this, saying that they had “stolen his thunder”. his response was recorded, and we’ve been using it ever since!