Englishsugarcoat the pill
Meaning: To make something unpleasant more palatable or easier to accept.
Example: “The doctor didn't sugarcoat the pill: he needed surgery soon.”
Equivalents in other languages
Spanish: dorar la píldora Literally: To gild the pill
French: Dorer la pilule Literally: To gild the pill
Origin: The coating is a real pharmaceutical innovation and a fairly recent one. Until the nineteenth century a pill was an uncoated rolled mass of medicine, and swallowing it meant tasting it; sugar-coating was developed commercially in the 1800s, with American manufacturers refining the process from the 1850s, and it transformed how willingly patients took what they were prescribed. The metaphor is far older than the technology, however. Lucretius, writing in the first century BC, defended putting philosophy into verse by comparing it to smearing honey around the rim of a cup so that a child will drink the bitter wormwood inside — the same argument, that an unwelcome substance goes down more easily when something pleasant is applied to the outside of it, made two thousand years before anyone could actually coat a pill.
More English idioms
- ace up one's sleeve A hidden advantage or secret resource kept in reserve to use when needed.
- what's eating you What is bothering or irritating you?
- old flame A former romantic partner, especially one whose memory still stirs affection.
- old fogey An elderly person with old-fashioned or reactionary views.
- were you born in a tent An admonishment to someone who has carelessly left a door open.
- rip it up To perform with energy, excitement, and conspicuous success.
Explore another collection: Tongue Twisters
Tricky phrases to practice out loud, from languages around the world.
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.
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