Washington (CNN) On Thursday afternoon in the White House, chief of staff John Kelly laid into Florida Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson in harsh terms.

"A congresswoman stood up, and in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building," Kelly said.

In an interview on CNN's "New Day" Friday morning, Wilson alleged that "empty barrel" is a "racist term." She didn't explain why.

All of which made me curious: Where does the phrase "an empty barrel makes the most noise" come from? And is there any sort of racial component to those origins? Or to its current usage?

A search through the Internet shows that the origin of the line is somewhat fuzzy -- although it is commonly credited to Plato in this form: "An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers." (One interesting thing: There is no citation of what work Plato wrote those words in.)