A Real Pill

Brenda in her never ending quest for words for us to ponder on has chosen the word "pill" this week.  I looked at everyone else's posts first.  I hope that's not against Pondering law!  Everyone thought of pretty much the same things....pills that you swallow, pill-box hats, pills on a sweater, and someone who is a pill.

I didn't think of anything else, so I thought I'd solve a mystery.  We all know how someone who's a pill acts, but not why they are called a pill.  Hello, Google search!

The most reasonable answer I could find is that pill is short for the British slang word, pillock.  A pillock is apparently Scandinavian for penis.  The Brits use it to refer to any stupid or annoying person.  So, not so different really from our not-so-nice American word for someone acting like a jerk.  Makes me think I won't be referring to anyone as a pill any more.