besides vs nothing but

besides

adv
  • Otherwise; else. 

  • Used to emphasize an additional point, especially an important or stronger reason; moreover; furthermore. 

  • Also; in addition. 

prep
  • In addition to. 

  • Other than; except for; instead of. 

  • Beside, next to. 

nothing but

adv
  • only 

How often have the words besides and nothing but occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )