A small, solid dosage form of medication designed to be swallowed whole. Can also refer to something unpleasant that must be accepted or endured.
From Latin 'pilula', diminutive of 'pila' meaning 'ball'. The word entered English through Old French in the 14th century, originally referring to any small ball-shaped object before specializing for medicine.
The phrase 'a bitter pill to swallow' metaphorically captures the difficulty of accepting unpleasant truths, stemming from the literal challenge of swallowing bad-tasting medicine. Modern pharmaceutical coating techniques have largely eliminated the bitter taste problem, but the expression persists.
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