the pill

== English == === Pronunciation === enPR: pĭl, IPA(key): /pɪl/, [pʰɪɫ] Rhymes: -ɪl === Etymology 1 === From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula. (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill. ==== Noun ==== pill (plural pills) (broadly) A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication. Hyponyms: tablet, caplet, capsule, lozenge (strictly) Such an object that is of solid constitution (usually of compressed, bonded powder) rather than a capsule (with a shell containing loose powder or liquid). Hyponyms: tablet, caplet, lozenge Coordinate term: capsule (informal, uncountable, definite, i.e. used with "the") Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill. Something offensive, unpleasant or nauseous which must be accepted or endured. 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, III [Uniform ed., p. 45]: "It's a sad unpalatable truth," said Mr. Pembroke, thinking that the despondency might be personal, "but one must accept it. My sister and Gerald, I am thankful to say, have accepted it, so naturally it has been a little pill." (slang) A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person. (slang) A comical or entertaining person. (textiles) A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibers formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing. Synonyms: bobble, crawbeen, fuzzball, lint ball (baseball slang) A baseball. (firearms, slang) A bullet (projectile). (graphical user interface) A rounded rectangle containing a brief text caption indicating the tag or category that an item belongs to. ===== Usage notes ===== The word pill referring to a swallowable unit conveying a dose of medication is polysemic in that it has a broad sense and a narrower sense: broadly, it means any such object, including any tablet or capsule, whereas narrowly, it means a tablet (including the caplet type of tablet) but not a capsule. But the broad sense of the word is widely used in general vocabulary, and also in the medical and nursing literature; linguistically this is predictably inevitable, because natural language has a practical need for a simple hypernym that intuitively covers all such oral dosage forms, and the word pill provides one by long-established idiomatic convention, with no alternative synonym that is thus established. Thus, trying to enforce a usage prescription that insists that the word must never be used in its broad sense is counterproductive to clear and concise communication. This is why some publications' style sheets specify that the words tablet, caplet, and capsule will be used wherever technical precision is needed and that the word pill will be reserved for contexts where the technical precision is irrelevant because the hypernymic concept is clearly meant, as for example in an instruction to ask the patient whether they remember taking all their pills this morning. ===== Synonyms ===== (small object for swallowing): tablet (bullet): cap ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== ==== Verb ==== pill (third-person singular simple present pills, present participle pilling, simple past and past participle pilled) (intransitive, textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber. To form into the shape of a pill. (transitive) To medicate with pills; to administer pills to. (transitive, Internet slang) To persuade or convince someone of something. (transitive, UK, slang, dated) To blackball (a potential club member). ===== Translations ===== ===== References ===== (blackball): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary === Etymology 2 === From Middle English pillen, pilen, from Old English pilian (“to peel”), from Latin pilō (“depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). Doublet of peel. ==== Verb ==== pill (third-person singular simple present pills, present participle pilling, simple past and past participle pilled) (obsolete) To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark. To peel; to make by removing the skin. To be peeled; to peel off in flakes. (obsolete) To pillage; to despoil or impoverish. ==== Noun ==== pill (plural pills) (obsolete) The peel or skin. === Etymology 3 === From Middle English *pill, *pyll, from Old English pyll (“a pool, pill”), from Proto-Germanic *pullijaz (“small pool, ditch, creek”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“pool, stream”), from Proto-Indo-European *bl̥nos (“bog, marsh”). Cognate with Old English pull (“pool, creek”), Scots poll (“slow moving stream, creek, inlet”), Icelandic pollur (“pond, pool, puddle”). More at pool. ==== Noun ==== pill (plural pills) (now UK regional) An inlet on the coast; a small tidal pool or bay. Pill can occur in the name of such an inlet. ===== Derived terms ===== === Further reading === “pill”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. == Albanian == === Etymology === A form of pidh from Proto-Albanian *pizda, from Proto-Indo-European *písdeh₂ (“pudenda”). Cognate to Lithuanian pyzdà (“pudenda”) and Russian пизда (pizda, “pudenda”) === Noun === pill vagina (vulgar) cunt ==== Synonyms ==== pidh == Estonian == === Etymology 1 === From Proto-Finnic *pilli. ==== Noun ==== pill (genitive pilli, partitive pilli) (music) instrument ===== Declension ===== ===== Synonyms ===== muusikariist === Etymology 2 === Borrowed from German Pille. ==== Noun ==== pill (genitive pilli, partitive pilli) (medicine) pill ===== Declension ===== ===== Synonyms ===== tablett == Irish == === Pronunciation === (Munster) IPA(key): /pʲiːlʲ/ (Galway) IPA(key): /pʲiːl̠ʲ/ (Mayo, Ulster) IPA(key): /pʲil̠ʲ/ === Etymology 1 === Through reinterpretation of /fʲ/ as the lenition of /pʲ/. ==== Verb ==== pill (present analytic pilleann, future analytic pillfidh, verbal noun pilleadh, past participle pillte) Ulster form of fill (“return”) ===== Conjugation ===== === Etymology 2 === See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form. ==== Noun ==== pill inflection of peall: vocative/genitive singular nominative/dative plural === Mutation === === References === == Scottish Gaelic == === Noun === pill m genitive singular of peall === Mutation === == Swedish == === Noun === pill n (colloquial) finicky or fiddly activity ==== Usage notes ==== Could be translated as "finickness" or "finick" (finicky activity) if any of those were used in English. See pilla for intuition. ==== Declension ==== ==== Related terms ==== pilla pillig (“finicky, fiddly”) ==== References ==== “pill”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish) “pill”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish) “pill”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)