pilule

pilule (plural pilules)

1. (medicine, obsolete) A little pill.

Borrowed from Medieval Latin pilula, apparently first attested in the fourteenth century[1], in turn inherited from the Classical Latin, attested in the medical sense in Pliny. Note that Italian pillola[2][3] and Spanish píldora[4] are widely regarded as inheritances, not borrowings.

• IPA^(key): /pi.lyl/

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pilule f (plural pilules)

1. pill (small object to be swallowed)
2. (with the definite article la) the contraceptive pill

• se dorer la pilule
• pilule du lendemain

• “pilule” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).