Small round or oval masses of medicine designed to be swallowed whole. Can refer to any medication in tablet or capsule form.
From Latin 'pilula', diminutive of 'pila' meaning ball. Originally referred to small balls of medicine rolled by hand, later adapted for mass-produced pharmaceutical tablets.
The invention of the pill-coating machine in the 1880s revolutionized medicine by making bitter drugs palatable and protecting them from stomach acid. 'The Pill' (birth control) became so culturally significant it needed no other identification, fundamentally changing women's reproductive autonomy.
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