Tempest in a teapot (

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

), or storm in a teacup (

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

), is an idiom meaning a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion. There are also lesser known or earlier variants, such as ''tempest in a teacup'', ''storm in a cream bowl'', ''tempest in a glass of water'', ''storm in a wash-hand basin'', and ''storm in a glass of water''.

Etymology

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, in the first century BC, in his ''

De Legibus The ''De Legibus'' (''On the Laws'') is a dialogue written by Marcus Tullius Cicero during the last years of the Roman Republic. It bears the same name as Plato's famous dialogue, '' The Laws''. Unlike his previous work ''De re publica,'' in wh ...

'', used a similar phrase in Latin, possibly the precursor to the modern expressions, , translated: "For Gratidius raised a tempest in a ladle, as the saying is". Then in the early third century AD,

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...

, in the '' Deipnosophistae'', has Dorion ridiculing the description of a tempest in the ''Nautilus'' of Timotheus by saying that he had seen a more formidable storm in a boiling saucepan. The phrase also appeared in its French form ('a tempest in a glass of water'), to refer to the popular uprising in the Republic of Geneva near the end of the eighteenth century. One of the earliest occurrences in print of the modern version is in 1815, where Britain's Lord Chancellor Thurlow, sometime during his tenure of 1783–1792, is quoted as referring to a popular uprising on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

as a "tempest in a teapot". Also

Lord North Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (13 April 17325 August 1792), better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was 12th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most o ...

, Prime Minister of Great Britain, is credited for popularizing this phrase as characterizing the outbreak of American colonists against the tax on tea. This sentiment was then satirized in Carl Guttenberg's 1778 engraving of the ''Tea-Tax Tempest'' (shown above right), where Father Time flashes a

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...

picture of an exploding teapot to America on the left and Britannia on the right, with British and American forces advancing towards the teapot. Just a little later, in 1825, in the Scottish journal ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'', a critical review of poets Hogg and Campbell also included the phrase "tempest in a teapot".
The first recorded instance of the British English version, "storm in teacup", occurs in Catherine Sinclair's ''Modern Accomplishments'' in 1838. There are several instances though of earlier British use of the similar phrase "storm in a wash-hand basin".

Other languages

A similar phrase exists in numerous other languages: * fa, از کاه کوه ساختن ('a storm in a cup') * ar, زوبعة في فنجان ('a storm in a cup') * ('storm in a teacup') * ('storm in a glass of water') * ('winds and waves in a teacup; storm in a teapot') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('a large storm in a small glass') * ('storm in a glass of water') * ('typhoon in a teacup') * ('storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass of water') *

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: ''Sturm im Wasserglas'' ('storm in a glass of water') * he, סערה בכוס תה ('storm in a teacup') *

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: चाय की प्याली में तूफ़ान ('storm in a teacup') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass') * ('a typhoon in a teacup') * ('to stir up waves in a ladle') * ('storm in a glass of water') * ('storm in a glass') * ('storm in a tea cup') * (

Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...

)/ (

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-N ...

) ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('storm in a glass of water/a tempest in a glass of water') * ('storm in a glass of water') * ('storm in a glass of water') * ('storm in a glass of water') * ('a storm in a glass of water') * ('storm in a glass of water') * Turkish: ('storm in a spoon of water') *

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

: ('storm in a tea cup') * ('storm in a tea cup') *

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

: ('a tempest in a glass of water') *

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' American and British English differences The English language was introduced to the Americas by British colonisation, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The language also spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and colonisation an ...

* Brouhaha *

Make a mountain out of a molehill Making a mountain out of a molehill is an idiom referring to over-reactive, histrionic behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue. It seems to have come into existence in the 16th century. Metaphor The idiom is a metaphor for the ...

* The Mountain in Labour gives birth to a mouse

References

{{reflist English-language idioms Metaphors Catchphrases Idioms 1810s neologisms