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pilula

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word pilula

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Scribonius Largus, c. 47 AD
Ultimate origin
Latin pila
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin pila
English pile
Latin pilula
Italian pillola

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɪ.ɫʊ.ɫa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpiː.lu.la][1]

Forms

pilula f (genitive pilulae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pila3 (“ball”) + -ula, a diminutive.[2][3][1] Etymonline notes that ⟨pila⟩ may be related to pilus1 (“hair”) if a ball was first a ball of hair.[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest examples are in the physician Scribonius Largus, who uses it for the seed balls of the plane tree, boiled in vinegar, and for medicine shaped into pills the size of a vetch seed.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it for galls and similar balls on oak and cypress,[2][3] and for medicinal pills.[6] Medical writers used it often, poets almost never.[3] Other small round things were pilulae too: droppings of animals in veterinary writers, and the little balls of children's play that Augustine puts beside nuts and sparrows.[3] In medieval medicine it was the ordinary word for a pill,[7] and it is the source, through Middle Dutch or Middle Low German and Old French, of English pill and German Pille.[4][5]

Timeline

  • c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses it of seed balls and medicinal pills.[3][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of oak galls and pills.[2][6][5]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of children's play balls.[3][5]
  • c. 1400 – English pill is first recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A little ball, globule, pellet.[2][6][3]
  2. A ball-shaped seed head or growth on a plant, such as a gall.[2][3]
  3. (medicine) A pill.[6][3][7][1]
  4. A small ball used in children's games.[3][5]
  • pilāris
  • pilārius
  • pilīcrepus
  • pila3
  • English pill

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Pilula.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/pilula. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·