pellet: [14] Etymologically, a pellet is a ‘little ball’. It comes via Old French pelote (a relative of Spanish pelota ‘ball’, from which the name of the Basque ball-game pelota [19] comes) from Vulgar Latin *pilotta, a diminutive form of Latin pila ‘ball’ (source of English pill [15] and piles ‘haemorrhoids’ [15]). Pelt ‘throw things at’ [15] may have originated as a contraction of pellet (although a possible alternative source is Latin pultāre ‘hit’); and platoon comes from a diminutive form of French pelote. => pelota, pelt, piles, platoon
