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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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That one will have sailed right over their heads, Rube...
No, it was in a book I read many years ago, "Careful, he might hear you". One of the things the boy heard was the word poofter. It was set in Oz. The word poof was also used in whatever that recent movie was about the rough young British boy who was determined to take up ballet. He let his friend kiss him, but admonished that he himself was not a poof.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
USns have a very little-used insult pill.
Sir Pelham was very fond of this word. I can't remember now if it was Madeleine Bassett or Gussie Fink-Nottle who was so described, and I don't have the works to hand.
I wonder if he picked it up in the US, or whether he introduced it over there from the UK.
Bingley
Bingley
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old hand
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old hand
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>Sir Pelham was very fond of this word. Hmm, first hogwash, then Bacon, and now the man who gave us the Empress of Blandings - is this Bingley's psyche crying out at its long exile in the world's most populous Muslim nation? 
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I can't remember now if it was Madeleine Bassett or Gussie Fink-Nottle who was so described, and I don't have the works to hand.
I wonder if he picked it up in the US, or whether he introduced it over there from the UK.
If it was one of those two (I don't have the books here either) then it would have been Madeleine Bassett.
Calling someone a pill is dated now but definitely of UK origin. As you would imagine it is usually used to refer to someone whose behaviour is hard to swallow. Is it a simile or a metaphor? Neither seems quite right somehow.
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Carpal Tunnel
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However, "Jeeves in the Offing" is online, and Phyllis Mills, stepdaughter to Aubrey Upjohn is described as a pill: 'I have every right to goggle like a dead halibut,' I said coldly,
'and I shall continue to do so as long as I see fit. I am under a
considerable nervous s. As always seems to happen when you are mixed up
in the doings, life has become one damn thing after another, and I
think I am justified in demanding an explanation. I await your
statement.'
'Well, let me marshal my thoughts.'
She did so, and after a brief intermission, during which I finished
my piece of cake, proceeded.
'I'd better begin by telling you about Upjohn, because it all
started through him. You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert
Cream.'
'When you say egging -'
'I mean egging. And when a man like that eggs, something has to
give, especially when the girl's a pill like Phyllis, who always does
what Daddy tells her.'
'No will of her own?'
'Not a smidgeon. To give you an instance, a couple of days ago he
took her to Birmingham to see the repertory company's performance of
Chekhov's Seagull, because he thought it would be educational. I'd like
to catch anyone trying to make me see Chekhov's Seagull, but Phyllis
just bowed her head and said, "Yes, Daddy." Didn't even attempt to put
up a fight. That'll show you how much of a will of her own she's got.'http://lib.ru/INPROZ/WUDHAUS/jeeves_off_engl.txtThose of us illiterate in Cyrllic need not be put off by the first few lines of Cyrillic text, the actual work is in English. Bingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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That's interesting, PGW's description of Phyllis as a 'pill' is used here to indicate that she has an insipid character. A less unpleasant attribute than those usually ascribed to someone who is a pill. Perhaps some drift of meaning occurred. I have found a definition that claims the usage for the US of A: (Definition from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary):
pill (PERSON) noun [C] US
an annoying person:
Jennifer was being such a pill today.I shall give up. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I remember seeing it used in a Little Nemo comic strip from the early part of the 20th century. I could get an accurate date but I'll have to do some digging.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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"A pill he is
But still he is
Mine and I'll love him
Until he is -
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, like me."
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Carpal Tunnel
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per the available citations, the sense shift from being 'some thing that is hard to swallow' to 'a disagreeable person' seem to have occured fin de siecle in the Yale/Harvard environs. (the former figurative sense goes wayback to C16.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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From whence cometh this expression, for conversation, used by Bertie Wooster?
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