The term nothing burger — spelled closed, as nothingburger, by no less august an institution than the Oxford English Dictionary, along with the Macmillan and Urban dictionaries — has been around for decades but has exploded of late onto the political stage.

The investigation into possible Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign? Nothingburger. Liberal outrage over Charlottesville? Nothingburger. Among those deploying the “nothingburger” talking point (which, in a literal sense, it has been)? The list is long. Sen. Ted Cruz, then–White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, then–Rep. Jason Chaffetz and controversial Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, to name just a quartet (pounder). And it’s not solely the Republicans. As one example, Democrats have fitted the Republican “framework” for tax reform with the “nothingburger” label.