June 13, 2013

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.


5 comments:

Tami AKA My Kid's Mom said...

Loved it - don't think I'll call anyone a "pill" either.

Brenda Youngerman said...

WOW! not sure I'll be calling anyone a pill anytime soon.

Thanks for pondering with me!

retired not tired said...

Great research!

LA Botchar said...

Awesome research!!
I am totally calling everyone a "pill" now...because only I will secretly know what it really means.

sorry..I am in that kind of mood today.

Stacy said...

Rory...LOL!

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