pill

森元首相が「ロシアが負けることは考えられない。こんなにウクライナに力を入れていいのか？」と主張しているとの報道がありました。これは「強ければ戦争を仕掛けても良く、負けそうな国を助けるのは損だ！」との意味ですよね。こんな酷い考えの人間が日本のリーダーだったのは情けない。
さて、Yoko Ogawaの "the memory police" を読んでいます。

I looked at her again. She seemed solidly built, but her clothes were threadbare. Her work pants, which had probably been fashioned out of material from an old kimono, were tattered, and the shawl she had wrapped around her shoulders was pilling. There were holes at the toes of her tennis shoes.

架空の場所と時代の話なので英訳本で読んでいると、日本とは関係の無い世界の話ですが、たまに "kimono" の様な日本語が出てくるので原作者が日本人であることが確認できます。
"pilling" の意味を調べます。

・Wiktionary: Balls of fibre formed on clothing through usage, often called pill or pills.
・Collins Dictionary: to form into small, pill-like balls, as the fuzz on a wool sweater
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a small ball of threads that develops on the surface of clothes or material: She sat there sulking and picking the pills off her sweater.

毛玉もたしかに錠剤と同じ様に丸い物体ですね。