Word.ws English Dictionary

fine words butter no parsnips

fine words butter no parsnips proverb: nothing is achieved by empty words or flattery.

Proverb

fine words butter no parsnips

  1. Nothing is achieved by empty words or flattery.

Origin of fine words butter no parsnips

Attested as early as 1639 as faire words butter noe parsnips, alluding to the English habit of buttering foods to make them more palatable. It was found in the 17th century in various forms with the first and last word being different, thus allowing combinations of fine/fair/soft with parsnips/cabbage/fish/connie before becoming standardized in the form fine words doth butter no parsnips.

Questions about fine words butter no parsnips

What does fine words butter no parsnips mean?
Fine words butter no parsnips means nothing is achieved by empty words or flattery.
What part of speech is fine words butter no parsnips?
Fine words butter no parsnips is a proverb.

Words near fine words butter no parsnips in the dictionary

  1. fine tune
  2. fine tuned
  3. fine tunes
  4. fine tuning
  5. fine weather for ducks
  6. fine words butter no parsnips
  7. fine-draw
  8. fine-drawing
  9. fine-drawn
  10. fine-draws
  11. fine-drew

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fine words butter no parsnips (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-fine words butter no parsnips.oga.

Cite this entry: “fine words butter no parsnips.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fine_words_butter_no_parsnips. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.