Whose Ox Is Gored.

It popped into my head to wonder about the origin of the titular phrase: did it ascend to antiquity? Was its origin in the Greco-Roman classics, the Bible, ancient Sumer? Imagine my surprise when I turned to the OED (s.v. ox, entry revised 2005) and found: 1.c. Chiefly U.S. [Apparently in allusion to a response given by Martin Luther (1483–1546) at the Diet of Worms (1521).] In collocation with gored. An interest that is threatened or harmed. Chiefly in whose ox is gored. 1843 If the Democrats, under like circumstances, had made such a declaration, the welkin would have rung and rung again with anathemas against repudiation. But it makes a difference whose ox is gored. Brooklyn Eagle & Kings County Democrat 7 August 2/2 1885 This is a doctrine which if allowed, will be adopted very much on the principle of whose ‘ox is gored’. American Naturalist vol. 19 593 1901 It makes a difference whose ox is gored, it seems. F. Norris, Octopus ii. iv. 442 1973 He was widely known as a dare-devil…