Pillhead

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual who has developed a dependency on pharmaceuticals to an extreme degree A person who habitually uses medications for non-medical purposes as a primary source of pleasure Someone marked by a continual and often problematic use of pills for recreational effects
2. A person that demonstrates an unhealthy reliance on prescription drugs to cope or achieve euphoria An individual who frequently consumes various medications beyond their intended use for personal enjoyment Someone identified by their recurrent engagement with pharmaceutical substances beyond therapeutic needs
3. Someone who regularly consumes pills primarily to achieve a high or escape reality

Etymology: "Pill" reached English from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch "pille," itself from Latin "pilula," a diminutive of "pila," meaning a ball. Medicine was rolled into little balls long before tablets existed, which is why the small round dose gave its name to the whole category. "Head" is one of English's most productive suffixes for building nouns about people who are defined by a particular obsession or habit. Its ancestor, Old English "hēafod," traces back to the same ancient root as Latin "caput," meaning head, which is why "pillhead" shares a distant kinship with words like "capital" and "decapitate." "Pillhead" is a plain compound of "pill" and "-head," with no sense of a person's literal head involved. It describes someone whose life is organised around taking pills for their effects rather than for treating illness.

Synonyms: drug user, addict, junkie

Antonyms: sober person, teetotaler