{"id":69202,"date":"2025-05-24T06:09:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T11:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=69202"},"modified":"2025-05-25T08:40:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T13:40:28","slug":"pilled-maxxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=69202","title":{"rendered":"Pilled-maxxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of relatively recent English compounding forms are getting more common in the media: X-pilled<\/a><\/em> and X-maxxing<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"The Man Who \u2018A.G.I.-Pilled\u2019 Google<\/a>\"
\n\"Red-pilled culture is corroding young men\u2019s brains<\/a>\"
\n\"This mom \u2018de-pilled\u2019 her teen son. What is that and why are people praising her?<\/a>\"
\n\"Are you pope-pilled? Here's your guide to the 2025 Conclave.<\/a>\"
\n\"California Democrats get \u2018abundance-pilled\u2019 as they look for a path forward<\/a>\"
\n\"Are Q-Pilled Family Members Lost for Good?<\/a>\"<\/div>\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n
\"What the Hell Is Testosterone-Maxxing and Why Are Gym Bros Doing It?<\/a>\"
\n\"\u201cSleepmaxxing\u201d Is Trending\u2014I\u2019d Caution Against It<\/a>\"
\n\"Happy hour-maxxing: An Old Port bar crawl that gets you more for less<\/a>\"
\n\"OPINION: Stop the protein maxxing, start eating what you want<\/a>\"
\n\"What is the aura maxxing ? The tik tok trend explained<\/a>\"
\n\"WTF Is \u2018Fertility Maxxing\u2019? Why It\u2019s Gaining Attention Among People Trying to Get Pregnant<\/a>\"<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

It's pretty obvious what these mean. The etymology of maxxing<\/em> is clear, though the double x is an innovation, and the cultural history of the idiom<\/a> needs exploring — it hasn't made it into Wiktionary yet, much less the OED.<\/p>\n

Most people will guess that the pilled<\/em> forms come from the 1999 movie The Matrix<\/em><\/a>, where Neo<\/a> is given a choice between red (real world) and blue (Matrix) pills.<\/p>\n

The pills in The Matrix<\/em> may have been based on an earlier usage, in Ronald Howard's 1980 paper \"On making life and death decisions<\/a>\", which features a hypothetic choice between a white pill<\/a> and a black pill<\/a> , the latter being described by Wiktionary<\/a> as \"A hypothetical pill with a specific probability of causing death, which one is offered a large sum of money in order to take, as a philosophical dilemma.\" But then black pill<\/em> was re-invented post-Matrix, with a sense Wiktionary glosses as \"A notional pill taken by those who have adopted a nihilistic, usually (but not necessarily) far-right philosophy, especially incels who believe unattractive men will never be sexually or romantically successful.\"<\/p>\n

Update — <\/strong>Randy Hudson in the comments<\/a> points out another source of pill-pilling:<\/p>\n

The Wikipedia article \"Red pill and blue pill<\/a>\" points out that the [1990] film \"Total Recall<\/a>\" has a scene where the hero is asked to swallow a red pill to symbolize his desire to return to reality.<\/p>\n

And bks reminds us<\/a> of the 1967 song \"White Rabbit<\/a>\":<\/p>\n

One pill makes you larger
\nAnd one pill makes you small<\/span><\/a>
\nAnd the ones that mother gives you
\nDon't do anything at all<\/span><\/a>
\nGo ask Alice
\nWhen she's ten feet tall<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Update #2 —<\/strong> I meant to include this couplet from Jesse Welles' song \"Red\"<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I got me some red pills in a bottle, I got black and blue ones too.<\/span>
\nAll the pills are all the same, the illusion is you choose.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n