Today we have amazing sound effect techniques available in cinema and theater. But a few centuries back, sound mixing was a subtle and resourceful art. Not quite everybody's cup of tea. In 1704, an English playwright John Dennis invented the device to manufacture sound of thunder. But the technique was swiftly and blatantly copied by his competitors for adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. When Dennis himself watched the play and the sound effect, he cried out- "they stole my thunder." That's how this phrase came into existence and has been long associated with any attempt of plagiarism or stealing one's genuine credit for an extraordinary feat.
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