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Butter me no parsnips

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SYLLIE | 17:21 Sun 08th Jan 2006 | Quizzes & Puzzles
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Anyone know where this comes from


GOOGLE has failed again!


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It's an old English proverb....


'Fine words butter no parsnips'

Found on GOOGLE in 30 seconds.


The full expression is fine words butter no parsnips (or sometimes soft words ... or fair words ...), meaning that words alone are useless, especially flattering phrases or fine promises, and you should judge people by what they do rather than by what they say.
Apart from that, there�s not a lot more that one can say apart from �origin unknown�. It�s a proverb, which is at least 400 years old: the first example given in the big Oxford English Dictionary is dated 1639: �Faire words butter noe parsnips�.
The link between butter and flattery is easy to understand. We have had the verb to butter up, to flatter someone lavishly, in the language at least since the early eighteenth century. It and the proverb share the image of fine words being liberally applied to smooth their subject and oil the process of persuasion.

Google doesn't fail - but Googlers often do! If at first you don't succeed try rephrasing your "question". The information is there - sometimes you just have to try a little harder to find it.

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