Dun dun dun dun

cjhsa wrote:

Whenever I hear "dun dun dun dun" I think of sharks.

I think of Perry Mason.

Pear-shaped? You have something against pear-shaped?

and some women are referred to as pear-shaped here

The sort of expression that you're likely to hear is something along the lines of: "things have gone all pear-shaped". The meaning of this odd little phrase is clear enough - it means that something has gone wrong. However, it's not listed in any of the books I've consulted. It's not even in Jonathan Green's excellent Dictionary of Slang. So, I floated the following speculation: that pear shaped comes from the notion of a circle gone wrong. A circle is a perfect shape, anything which is clearly not perfect is "a circle gone wrong" - or, in other words, "gone all pear shaped". And now my friend Michael Quinion (on his World Wide Words website) says that the explanation that has now been accepted by Oxford Dictionaries is that pear shaped comes from Royal Air Force slang. However, nobody there or anywhere else seems to know why. Some say that it may have been applied to the efforts of pilots to do aerobatics, such as loops. It's notoriously difficult (apparently) to get manoeuvres like this even roughly circular and instructors would describe the resulting distorted route of the aircraft as pear-shaped. Michael Quinion says: "I've not seen firm evidence to convince me of this explanation, which sounds a little far-fetched, but that's the best we have at the moment."

Pear-shaped When something has "gone pear-shaped" it has gone wrong. Probably derived from the sagging shape of a pear.

pear-shaped adj. If something has gone pear-shaped it means it's all gone rather wrong. Usually it's meant in a rather jovial sense, in a similar way to the American expression "out of kilter" or "off kilter". You might see it in contexts like "Well, I was supposed to have a civilised dinner with my mates but we had a few drinks and it all went a bit pear-shaped". You would not see it in contexts like "Well, she went in for the operation but the transplant organ's been rejected and the doctor says it's all gone a bit pear-shaped".

"It went pear-shaped" (GJV)

This expression is interesting because "pear-shaped" has been long acknowledged as a description for an elegant cut of diamond. This pedigree would appear to give "pear-shaped" a positive description.

"Pear-shaped" can also be used to describe the voluptuous anatomies portrayed by classical artists such as Poussin, Rubens, Raphael, or Rossetti.

"It went pear-shaped" is used in modern English to signify a comedic fiasco or similar disaster. In almost every circumstance, it refers to an undertaking or project that resulted in failure, but caused no grievous harm to anyone involved. Further, it provides a gentle suggestion that the fiasco was a result of nature and beyond the control of any specific individual. It is not regarded as vulgar or offensive.

Despite its common usage, the origin of the phrase remains obscure. Some sources attest that its origins lie in ballooning, and that a pear suggests the shape of a collapsed balloon. I can't find support for this etymology at http://www.ballooning.org/ballooning/glossary.html.

Others suggest that "pear-shaped" is rooted in aircraft terminology. The story goes that certain types of aircraft engine casings might go "pear-shaped" in the event of failure. Unfortunately, there is no convincing citation to accompany this claim.

Maths experts and "Quants" can be expected to attest that "pear-shaped" refers to a so-called "normal" or "Gaussian" distribution where the extremities of the distribution have become enlarged. In such a situation, improbable events would become much more probable. This is, at the moment, the preferred origin for "It's all gone pear-shaped"

"Pear-shaped", supplementary comments
(See remarks in UCLE.)

From: "Chris Veness" <e-mail>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 9:56 AM
Subject: Pear-shaped

I don't have any definitive citation, but James Briggs from Sheffield
Hallam University posted the following:

To go pear shaped is an expression used to indicate that a scheme has not
been perfectly executed. The phrase seems to have originated in British
English in the late 1940s or early 1950s. 1 have come across several
suggested origins, but the best, for me, is related to training aircraft
pilots. At some stage they are encouraged to try to fly loops - very
difficult to make perfectly circular; often the trainee pilot's loops
would go pear shaped.

(<http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/4/messages/1242.html>)

The same origin is referred to in
<http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-pea2.htm>.

That such a phrase is so popular, without any definitive origin, suggests
that it holds some resonance in its own right. I think the evocative idea
of a pure circle sagging out of shape to become pear-shaped is sufficient to
explain the popularity of the phrase, if not the origin.

Regards,

Chris Veness