"steal (someone's) thunder", 1858; OED 1900--
Joel S. Berson
Berson at ATT.NET
Sat Oct 5 16:09:09 UTC 2013
" ... nothing strongly marked or ludicrous
escaped her. She would constantly tell me of
these things, and add: 'Now, I shall use that
some day; so don't steal my thunder.' "
Godey's Lady's Book, vol. 56 (1858), p. 346, col.
2. By Alice B. [Neal] Haven, "Personal
Reminiscences of Miss Eliza Leslie." GBooks, full view.
Antedates OED2 "thunder, n." 3.d., 1900--.
Since, as the etymology of the OED says, this is
"Derived from the utterance of John Dennis
(16571734)", one might expect to find something
between him and 1858. I didn't in GBooks.
Joel
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