Tempest In A 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'', 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, , translated: "For Gratidius raised a tempest in a ladle, as the saying is". 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. 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 as a "tempest in a teapot". 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. 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".

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:
* ('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: ''Sturm im Wasserglas'' ('storm in a glass of water')
* ('storm in a teacup')
* Hindi: 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)/ (Nynorsk) ('a storm in a glass of water')
* ('to make a mountain out of hay - or a haystack')
* ('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: ('storm in a tea cup')
* ('storm in a tea cup')
* Ukrainian: ('a tempest in a glass of water')
* Urdu: ('storm in a teacup')
* ''a shturem in a gloz vaser'' ('a storm in a glass of water'), or ''a bure in a lefl vaser'' ('a tempest in a spoon of water')

See also

* American and British English differences
* Make a mountain out of a molehill
* The Mountain in Labour gives birth to a mouse

References

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English-language idioms
Metaphors
Catchphrases
Idioms
1810s neologisms
1810s quotations
Frederick North, Lord North