E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Butter.
Soft soap, soft solder (pron. saw-der), “wiping down” with winning words. Punch expressively calls it “the milk of human kindness churned into butter.” (Anglo-Saxon, butere or butyre, Latin, butyrum, Greek, bout&ybreve;ron, i.e. bou-turos, cow-cheese, as distinguished from goat- or ewe-butter.)
1
Soft words butter no parsnips. Saying “‘Be thou fed,’ will not feed a hungry man.” Mere words will not find salt to our porridge, or butter to our parsnips.
2
“Fine words, says our homely old proverb, butter no parsnips.”—Lowell.
He looks as if butter would not melt in his mouth. He looks like a dolt. He looks quite harmless and expressly made to be played upon. Yet beware, and “touch not a cat but a glove.”
3
“She smiles and languishes, you’d think that butter would not melt in her mouth.”—Thackeray: Pendennis, lx.
He knows on which side his bread is buttered. He knows his own interest. Scit uti foro.
4
He that has good store of butter may lay it thick on his bread. Cui multum est pipris, etiam oleribus immiscet.
5
To butter one’s bread on both sides. To be wastefully extravagant and luxurious.
ris, etiam oleribus immiscet.
