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pill

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is Middle English pille, borrowed from Middle Dutch pille or Middle Low German pille and Old French pile,[2][3][4] all from Latin pilula, a little ball, a diminutive of pila, a ball,[2][3][5] perhaps related to pilus, hair, if the original notion was a hairball (see pile).[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small ball of medicine to be swallowed: before 1400, in a translation of Lanfranc's Science of Surgery;[2] about 1400 in Etymonline, 1484 in the OED.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, something disagreeable that must be swallowed, is from 1548.[2][3][6] Physicians once covered bitter pills with gold, giving gild the pill in the early 17th century, later sugar the pill.[5] An objectionable person or bore is first recorded in 1897, in Maugham's Liza of Lambeth.[2] The contraceptive pill, the Pill, is from 1957,[6] and a pill of a barbiturate or amphetamine from 1963.[6] The verb, to dose with pills, is from 1736, in Fielding,[2][3] to blackball from 1855,[3] and of fabric, to form small balls of fibre, from 1953.[2] Pillbox is from 1730, and a small concrete gun emplacement from 1887.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – a medicinal pill.[2]
  • 1548 – a bitter pill.[2]
  • 1730 – pillbox.[2]
  • 1736 – to dose with pills.[2]
  • 1897 – a bore.[2]
  • 1953 – of fabric, to pill.[2]
  • 1957 – the Pill.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A small pellet or tablet of medicine taken by swallowing.
  2. (the pill) An oral contraceptive.
  3. Something unpleasant that must be accepted: a bitter pill to swallow.
  4. A small ball of fibres on the surface of a fabric.
  5. (slang) An unpleasant or boring person.

Verb

  1. To form small balls of fibre, as a fabric does.
  2. To dose with pills.

Word family

  • antipill
  • minipill
  • pillbox
  • pillhead
  • abortion pill
  • bitter pill
  • blue pill
  • morning-after pill

Usage notes

Several other words are spelled pill: an old verb meaning to peel or to plunder, from Latin pilāre (see pillage);[3][7][8] a peel or rind;[6][8] and a tidal creek in the West Country, a form of pool.[8][7]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press