tempest in a teapot (or teacup)
very, very interesting, this one. after all, it's not only man or tubagbohol.com that evolves. words and phrases do, too.
MeaningA small or unimportant event that is over-reacted to, as if it were of considerably more consequence.
OriginReaders from England might well be tut-tutting about the mangling of their perfectly good phrase 'a storm in a teacup' and castigating the American 'tempest in a teapot' as a newcomer, having little more reason to exist than its neat alliteration.
In fact, the teacup wasn't the first location of the said storm, nor was the teapot. The phrase probably derives from the writing of Cicero, in De Legibus, circa 52BC. The translation of his
"Excitabat fluctus in simpulo" is often given as
"He was stirring up billows in a ladle". Other cultures have versions of the phrase in their own languages. The translation of the Netherlands version is
'a storm in a glass of water', and the Hungarian
'tempest in a potty'.
Whether the first user of the expression in English had Cicero in mind, he made no mention of tea-making, although he wasn't so far away. The Duke of Ormond's letters to the Earl of Arlington, 1678, include this:
"Our skirmish seems to be come to a period, and compared with the great things now on foot, is but a storm in a cream bowl." Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=54298.0