Ok, so if your reading this, you know I am talking about Ortho Tri whatever … which culture accepts as “The Pill”. Is this an abbrevation of sorts just for Ortho, or all Birth Control pills? In any case, why did Birth Control pills get the name abbrevation and not say Anti-depresants or Anti-histimines? I can only WAG that it is releated to the fact that Lucy could not be “Pregnant” on TV, but still have a “Blessed Event” (Censorship)
The woman had to take any birth control pill regularly for it to work, so she was ‘taking’ or ‘on’ that pill. Now if someone was taking antibiotics, for instance, that person would just say so.
Given that any method of birth control was very hush-hush in the 50’s and thereabouts, as was sexuality in general except in advertising, there was a mental bottled-up effect, so saying ‘The Pill’ was partly euphemism, and partly because only one pill would be life-changing enough to get capitalized.
“The Pill” refers to all birth control pills. It was a huge deal when it first came out for women to be able to take control of their bodies with just a “little pill”. It was also the first in what is now a long list of drugs taken to improve our lives rather than cure an illness.
According to the OED, the first cite was from 1957:
So the phrase was coined before the Pill was invented.