Tempest in different cups WAS :Re: Nice and Interesting for a Small fortune

[zanooda2]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214"
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:

> Not Zanooda, but Russian translation that I am familiar will be 
> tempest in the glass of water, I believe. Now I am wondering 
> whether it is a translation or Russian equivalent.


zanooda:

I remember reading somewhere that our "tempest in a glass of water"
was a translation from French: "une tempete dans un verre d'eau". It
is kind of assumed that some French philosopher (Montesquieu?) used
this expression first, but I'm not sure I really believe it. How can
we really know who was the first to say something :-)? There is a
similar expression in almost every language, so it's quite possible
they all just appeared independently, IMO :-).