Crossword Genius

Madness to steal second! Madness! (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

insanity

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'madness' is the definition.
(I know that madness can be written as insanity)

'steal second madness' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'second' could be 's' (common abbreviation) and 's' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'inanity' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'to' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for insanity that I've seen before include "Mental derangement" , "folly" , "Lunacy, derangement" , "Lunacy, madness" , "mania" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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