Idiom
much ado about nothing
Meaning
A lot of fuss or bother about something trivial.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“People are making much ado about nothing regarding the small change.”
“The office meeting turned into much ado about nothing when the manager realized the error was actually minor.”
“Despite the intense media coverage and public outcry, the entire scandal proved to be much ado about nothing once the facts emerged.”
Examples
simple
“People are making much ado about nothing regarding the small change.”
contextual
“The office meeting turned into much ado about nothing when the manager realized the error was actually minor.”
complex
“Despite the intense media coverage and public outcry, the entire scandal proved to be much ado about nothing once the facts emerged.”
Origin
First appearing in the early 1500s, the phrase was recorded in 1574 within the pamphlet *The Defense of the Aunswere to the Admonition, against the Replie of T. C.* by John Whitgift. Whitgift, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to 1604, utilised the expression as a descriptor for unnecessary exertion before William Shakespeare secured its place in the lexicon.
Shakespeare employed the word *ado*, meaning business or activity, in his 1592 play *Romeo and Juliet* with the line, "Weele keepe no great adoe, a Friend or two." By 1598, he used the full phrase as the title for the comedy *Much Ado About Nothing*. The title relied upon a pun, as *nothing* was a homophone for *noting*, or the act of noticing, in the English of the period. The modern sense of the phrase as a contraction for a fuss has since superseded the original meaning of simple activity.
Key words
Related idioms
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