Pill Hill
- noun
- Informal
:
Pill Hill
- For many years, Aunt Rose and Uncle Isaac lived on Pill Hill, a more or less exclusive South Side ghetto of predominantly Jewish doctors.
Examples
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After a Black physician and his family bought a house on North Point, the so-called border of Pill Hill, the exodus started.
Fiction book (1999) -
In retrospect, I see what a perfect place Pill Hill was for my aunt.
Fiction book (1999) -
Pill Hill is known for its many hospitals and clinics, making it a vital area for Pill Hill.
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Living in Pill Hill means you are never far from quality healthcare services and facilities.
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Many families choose to settle in Pill Hill due to its close proximity to several medical centers.
Surface Forms
Morphology
pill + Hill
The parts 'pill' (medicine) and 'hill' (a place) create a clear medical/place association, so a learner who knows both words could plausibly guess it refers to a locality connected with healthcare. However, 'Pill Hill' is a conventionalized, local nickname (a proper-place name) and its exact meaning as a neighbourhood with many hospitals is culturally specific and not fully predictable from the parts alone, so prior exposure helps.
Etymology
The name Pill Hill may come from the simple picture of a pill and a hill: in some towns many hospitals and clinics stood close together on a small rise, so people saw lots of medicine and doctors in one spot. That's why Pill Hill now means a neighborhood with many 'hospitals' or 'clinics'.
