| E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. |
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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 |
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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 |
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“Fine words, says our homely old proverb, butter no parsnips.”—Lowell. |
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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 |
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“She smiles and languishes, you’d think that butter would not melt in her mouth.”—Thackeray: Pendennis, lx. |
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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 pip ris, etiam oleribus immiscet. | 5 |
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To butter one’s bread on both sides. To be wastefully extravagant and luxurious. | 6 |
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