the.com/fuss
Energy spent on a problem wildly out of proportion to the problem.
means A commotion of worry, complaint, or activity stirred up over something that usually doesn't deserve it.
from Appeared in English in the early 1700s, seemingly out of nowhere — no clear ancestor in Old English or Latin. Etymologists suspect it started as an imitative word, one of those sounds that just mimics the thing itself: a sputtering, fussy little noise, like someone flustered and clucking over nothing. Possibly related to the Danish 'fjas' (nonsense, foolery), but that link is uncertain. Mostly, 'fuss' seems to have invented itself out of sheer agitation.
- origin
- appeared mysteriously in the 1700s, no clear root
- synonym
- ado, as in much ado about nothing
- usage tell
- always bigger in the complaining than the cause
- opposite
- the shrug