Soft words butter no parsnips. In Scotland an excellent dish is
made of parsnips and potatoes beaten up with butter.
Many words will not fill a bushel.
promises will not help the needy. If we say to a beggar, “Be
thou filled,” is he filled?
The object of words is to conceal
To have words with one.
To quarrel; to have an angry
discussion. Other phrases to the same effect are—They
exchanged words together; There passed some words between
(in French, “Ils ont en quelques
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894