Etymology: Origin uncertain; probably related to pool n.¹, although if so the nature of the relationship is unclear; a derivation from Welsh pwll pool n.¹ (although this is first attested later) seems semantically attractive, but poses phonological problems.The word seems always to have been commonest around the Severn estuary. Although place names suggest a distribution reaching at one time as far north as Lancashire and Cheshire and as far east as Sussex, the pattern is predominantly south-western. The bulk of the Old English charter evidence is from Somerset, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire. Eng. Dial. Dict. (at cited word) records the word in use in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Pembrokeshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Cornwall. It is uncertain whether there is any connection with Irish English (Kilkenny) pill eroded part of a river bank, unloading bank for boats (19th and 20th cent.; also as the name of a tributary of the river Suir: see further S. Moylan Lang. Kilkenny (1996) at cited word).

Etymology: Apparently < pill v.¹ Compare peel n.³Earlier currency of the word is perhaps implied by the first element of Old English pillsāpe soap for removing hair, depilatory (see discussion s.v. pile n.⁵).

Etymology: Ultimately < classical Latin pilula (in post-classical Latin also pillula , in some medieval manuscripts) little ball, pellet, especially of medicinal substances, in post-classical Latin also bullet (c1330; < pila ball, of unknown origin + -ula -ula suffix); the immediate transmission into English is uncertain: perhaps partly shortened < the Latin word, partly shortened < Middle French pillule (1314 in Old French; French pilule, †pillule), partly shortened < pilule n., and perhaps also partly via either Middle Dutch pille (Dutch pil, †pille), Middle Low German pille (also pillele), or Middle High German pille (14th cent.; German Pille; also Middle High German, early modern German pillule, early modern German pillel, pillele).Compare Old French pile (late 12th and early 13th centuries), post-classical Latin pilla (15th cent. in Dutch glossaries). Compare also Italian pillola (early 14th cent.; also †pillula (Florio)). The Middle English form pillem (which occurs in MS Hunterian 95 (?a1425)) is unexplained. With sense 1c compare French pilule (1957; 1934 denoting an abortifacient). With to gild the pill (see sense 3b) compare French dorer la pilule (1668).

Etymology: Probably < pill n.³, although compare also discussion s.v. pill v.³ Compare slightly earlier pilling n.³

Etymology: Probably (alongside the variant peel v.¹) the reflex of an unattested Old English verb *pilian, *pylian, also *piolian , *peolian (compare the variation shown by clip v.¹, clepe v.), probably < classical Latin pilāre to deprive of hair or feathers, in post-classical Latin also to scalp (c1102 in a British source), to pluck wool (1245, 1322 in British sources), to pluck hides (1258 in a British source; 1284 as pelare ), to peel rushes (1336, 1357 in British sources; 1287, 1297 as pelare ; < pilus hair: see pilo- comb. form); compare the compound depilāre depilate v. Compare also post-classical Latin pilare to rob, pillage (4th cent.; 14th cent. as pillare ), although Thesaurus Linguae Latinae gives this as a separate word, with long -ī- . Compare Old French, Middle French, French peler to make bald, to remove hair from (a person) (c1100), to remove the hair or fur from (an animal) (12th cent.), to remove the skin, peel, bark, or covering from (c1100; in this sense probably influenced by association with pel skin: see pell n.¹), to rob, plunder (1197); compare also Old Occitan pelar, Italian pelare (a1342).Early Middle English pile (usually pĭle , although compare the rhyme in quot. ?a1400 at sense 7aα. ) probably shows the reflex of Old English *pilian , while pele and peolie (see peel v.¹) probably show the reflex of *peolian (and pele was probably also identified with French peler ); however, the modern form peel (with the reflex of Middle English close ē ) probably results from lengthening of i in an open syllable (compare evil adj.), rather than from the reflex of Old English *peolian . The later forms with -ll- were perhaps influenced by Old French, Middle French, French piller to plunder (see pilyie v., and compare piller n.), although no differentiation of sense is found between pile , pill , pele in Middle English, nor between pill and peel in early modern English and in modern English dialects. It is possible however that the influence of French piller and peler is to be seen in the tendency since the 17th cent. to differentiate pill and peel (so far as pill has survived) in literary use. With sense 6 compare French peler la terre to remove the grass (1694).