tempest in a teapot
{{Short description|English idiom}}
File:Tea Tax Tempest.jpg's 1778 Tea-Tax Tempest, with exploding teapot]]
Tempest in a teapot (American English), or also phrased as storm in a teacup (British English), or tempest in a teacup, is an idiom meaning a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion. There are also lesser known or earlier variants, such as storm in a cream bowl, tempest in a glass of water, storm in a wash-hand basin,Christine Ammer, The American Heritage dictionary of idioms, p. 647, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1997 {{ISBN|0-395-72774-X}}, 9780395727744 and storm in a glass of water.
Etymology
Cicero, in the first century BC, in his De Legibus, used a similar phrase in Latin, possibly the precursor to the modern expressions, {{Lang|la|Excitabat enim fluctus in simpulo ut dicitur Gratidius}}, translated: "For Gratidius raised a tempest in a ladle, as the saying is".{{cite book|last=Reddall|first=Henry Frederic|title=Fact, fancy, and fable: a new handbook for ready reference on subjects commonly omitted from cyclopaedias|year=1892|publisher=A.C McClurg|page=490}} Then in the early third century AD, Athenaeus, 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.{{cite book|last=Bartlett|first=John|title=Familiar quotations: a collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient and modern literature|year=1891|publisher=Little, Brown, and company|page=767}} The phrase also appeared in its French form {{Lang|fr|une tempête dans un verre d'eau}} ('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.{{cite journal|title=Whence the phrase "a tempest in a teapot"?|journal=Lippincott's Monthly Magazine: A Popular Journal of General Literature|date=March 1889|volume=43}}
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 as a "tempest in a teapot".{{cite book|last=Kett|first=Henry|title=The flowers of wit, or, A choice collection of bon mots, both antient and modern, with biographical and critical remarks, Volume 2|year=1814|publisher=Lackington, Allen, and co|page=67}} Also Lord North, Prime Minister of Great Britain, is credited for popularizing this phrase as characterizing the outbreak of American colonists against the tax on tea.{{cite journal|title=A Tempest in a Teapot|journal=Hartford Herald|date=July 10, 1907|page=8}} 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 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".{{cite journal|last=Blackwood|first=William|title=Scotch Poets, Hogg and Campbell|journal=Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine|year=1825|volume=17|page=112|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nItIAAAAYAAJ&q=Blackwood's%20Edinburgh%20Magazine%20%22tempest%20in%20a%20teapot%22&pg=PA112}}
The first recorded instance of the British English version, "storm in teacup", occurs in Catherine Sinclair's Modern Accomplishments in 1838.{{cite web|title=Tempest in a teapot|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/tempest-in-a-teapot.html|work=The Phrase Finder|access-date=7 January 2012}}{{cite book|last=Sinclair|first=Catherine|title=Modern accomplishments ; or, The march of intellect|year=1836|publisher=Waugh and Innes|page=[https://archive.org/details/modernaccomplis02sincgoog/page/n220 204]|url=https://archive.org/details/modernaccomplis02sincgoog|quote=storm in a teacup.}} There are several instances though of earlier British use of the similar phrase "storm in a wash-hand basin".{{cite web|title=Storm in a wash-hand basin (pre-1938)|url=https://www.google.com/search?q=%22storm+in+a+wash-hand+basin%22|work=Google Books search|access-date=7 January 2012}}
Other languages
A similar phrase exists in numerous other languages:
- {{langx|ar|زوبعة في فنجان}} {{Transl|ar|zawba'a fi finjan}} ('a storm in a cup')
- {{Langx|bn|চায়ের কাপে ঝড়}} {{Transl|bn|cha-er cup-e jhor}} ('storm in a teacup')
- {{Langx|bg|Буря в чаша вода}} {{Transl|bg|burya v chasha voda}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{Lang-zh|茶杯裡的風波、茶壺裡的風暴}} ('winds and waves in a teacup; storm in a teapot')
- {{Langx|cs|bouře ve sklenici vody}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|da|en storm i et glas vand}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|nl|een storm in een glas water}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|eo|granda frakaso en malgranda glaso}} ('a large storm in a small glass')
- {{Langx|et|torm veeklaasis}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|fil|bagyo sa baso}} ('typhoon in a teacup')
- {{Langx|fi|myrsky vesilasissa}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|fr|une tempête dans un verre d'eau}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- German: Sturm im Wasserglas ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{langx|he|סערה בכוס תה}} {{Transl|he|se'arah bekos teh}} ('storm in a teacup')
- Hindi: चाय की प्याली में तूफ़ान ('storm in a teacup')
- {{Langx|hu|vihar egy pohár vízben}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|is|stormur í vatnsglasi}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|it|una tempesta in un bicchiere d'acqua}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|ja|コップの中の嵐}} {{Transl|ja|koppu no naka no arashi}} ('a storm in a glass')
- {{Langx|ko|찻잔속의 태풍}} {{Transl|ko|chat jan sokui taepung}} ('a typhoon in a teacup')
- {{Langx|la|excitare fluctus in simpulo}} ('to stir up waves in a ladle')
- {{Langx|lv|vētra ūdens glāzē}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|lt|audra stiklinėje}} ('storm in a glass')
- {{Langx|ml|ചായക്കോപ്പയിലെ കൊടുങ്കാറ്റ്}} {{Transl|ml|chaya koppayile kodunkattu}} ('storm in a tea cup')
- {{Langx|no|storm i et vannglass}} (Bokmål)/{{Lang|nn|storm i eit vassglas}} (Nynorsk) ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{langx|fa|از کاه کوه ساختن}} {{Transl|fa|az kah kouh sakhtan}} ('to make a mountain out of hay - or a haystack')
- {{Langx|pl|burza w szklance wody}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|pt|tempestade em copo d'água/uma tempestade num copo d'água}} ('storm in a glass of water/a tempest in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|ro|furtună într-un pahar cu apă}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|ru|Буря в стакане воды}} {{Transl|ru|burya v stakane vody}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|sr|Бура у чаши воде}} {{Transl|sr|bura u čaši vode}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|es|una tormenta en un vaso de agua}} ('a storm in a glass of water')
- {{Langx|sv|storm i ett vattenglas}} ('storm in a glass of water')
- Turkish: {{Lang|tr|bir kaşık suda fırtına}} ('storm in a spoon of water')
- Telugu: {{Transl|te|tea kappu lo thufaanu}} ('storm in a tea cup')
- {{Langx|ta|தேநீர் கோப்பையில் புயல்}} ('storm in a tea cup')
- Ukrainian: {{Lang|uk|Буря в склянці води}} {{Transl|uk|buria v sklyantsi vody}} ('a tempest in a glass of water')
- Urdu: {{Script|Nastaliq|چائے کی پیالی میں طوفان}} {{Transl|ur|chaye ki pyali main toofan}} ('storm in a teacup')
- {{langx|yi|אַ שטורעם אין אַ גלאָז וואַסער}} a shturem in a gloz vaser ('a storm in a glass of water'), or {{lang|yi|אַ בורע אין אַ לעפֿל וואַסער}} a bure in a lefl vaser ('a tempest in a spoon of water')
See also
- American and British English differences
- Brouhaha
- Make a mountain out of a molehill
- The Mountain in Labour gives birth to a mouse