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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,[1] and storm in a glass of water.
Cicero, in the first century BC, in his De Legibus, used a similar phrase in Latin, possibly the precursor to the modern expressions, Excitabat enim fluctus in simpulo ut dicitur Gratidius, translated: "For Gratidius raised a tempest in a ladle, as the saying is".[2] 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.[3] The phrase also appeared in its French form 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.[4]
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".[5] 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.[6] 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".[7]
The first recorded instance of the British English version, "storm in teacup", occurs in Catherine Sinclair's Modern Accomplishments in 1838.[8][9] There are several instances though of earlier British use of the similar phrase "storm in a wash-hand basin".[10]
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A similar phrase exists in numerous other languages:
- Arabic: زوبعة في فنجان zawba'a fi finjan ('a storm in a cup')
- Bengali: চায়ের কাপে ঝড় cha-er cup-e jhor ('storm in a teacup')
- Bulgarian: Буря в чаша вода burya v chasha voda ('storm in a glass of water')
- Chinese: 茶杯裡的風波、茶壺裡的風暴 ('winds and waves in a teacup; storm in a teapot')
- Czech: bouře ve sklenici vody ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Danish: en storm i et glas vand ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Dutch: een storm in een glas water ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Esperanto: granda frakaso en malgranda glaso ('a large storm in a small glass')
- Estonian: torm veeklaasis ('storm in a glass of water')
- Filipino: bagyo sa baso ('typhoon in a teacup')
- Finnish: myrsky vesilasissa ('storm in a glass of water')
- French: une tempête dans un verre d'eau ('a storm in a glass of water')
- German: Sturm im Wasserglas ('storm in a glass of water')
- Hebrew: סערה בכוס תה se'arah bekos teh ('storm in a teacup')
- Hindi: चाय की प्याली में तूफ़ान ('storm in a teacup')
- Hungarian: vihar egy pohár vízben ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Icelandic: stormur í vatnsglasi ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Italian: una tempesta in un bicchiere d'acqua ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Japanese: コップの中の嵐 koppu no naka no arashi ('a storm in a glass')
- Korean: 찻잔속의 태풍 chat jan sokui taepung ('a typhoon in a teacup')
- Latin: excitare fluctus in simpulo ('to stir up waves in a ladle')
- Latvian: vētra ūdens glāzē ('storm in a glass of water')
- Lithuanian: audra stiklinėje ('storm in a glass')
- Malayalam: ചായക്കോപ്പയിലെ കൊടുങ്കാറ്റ് chaya koppayile kodunkattu ('storm in a tea cup')
- Norwegian: storm i et vannglass (Bokmål)/storm i eit vassglas (Nynorsk) ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Persian: از کاه کوه ساختن az kah kouh sakhtan ('to make a mountain out of hay - or a haystack')
- Polish: burza w szklance wody ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Portuguese: tempestade em copo d'água/uma tempestade num copo d'água ('storm in a glass of water/a tempest in a glass of water')
- Romanian: furtună într-un pahar cu apă ('storm in a glass of water')
- Russian: Буря в стакане воды burya v stakane vody ('storm in a glass of water')
- Serbian: Бура у чаши воде bura u čaši vode ('storm in a glass of water')
- Spanish: una tormenta en un vaso de agua ('a storm in a glass of water')
- Swedish: storm i ett vattenglas ('storm in a glass of water')
- Turkish: bir kaşık suda fırtına ('storm in a spoon of water')
- Telugu: tea kappu lo thufaanu ('storm in a tea cup')
- Tamil: தேநீர் கோப்பையில் புயல் ('storm in a tea cup')
- Ukrainian: Буря в склянці води buria v sklyantsi vody ('a tempest in a glass of water')
- Urdu: چائے کی پیالی میں طوفان chaye ki pyali main toofan ('storm in a teacup')
- Yiddish: אַ שטורעם אין אַ גלאָז וואַסער a shturem in a gloz vaser ('a storm in a glass of water'), or אַ בורע אין אַ לעפֿל וואַסער a bure in a lefl vaser ('a tempest in a spoon of water')
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- American and British English differences
- Brouhaha
- Make a mountain out of a molehill
- The Mountain in Labour gives birth to a mouse
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