Make a mountain out of a molehill

To exaggerate a small problem into something much bigger than it is, often out of anxiety, drama, or misperspective, blowing minor issues out of proportion.

From 16th-century England, first recorded in a 1548 text by Nicholas Udall as 'make mountains of molehills,' reflecting moles' small dirt mounds versus grand peaks. It tapped into Renaissance fascination with scale and proportion, mirroring proverbial wisdom like the Latin 'parturient montes' (mountains labor to birth a mouse). By the 17th century, it was a common idiom, as in John Foxe's 1570 writings, decrying petty disputes inflated to epic fights, rooted in a culture valuing reason over hysteria.