Talk:Pear-shaped

Spelling
Funny thing. As a non-native speaker of english I always thought one would spell it "pair shaped". This made perfect sense to me, since it could mean "broken into two pieces", couldn't it? 83.135.177.72 (talk) 17:15, 15 May 2006


 * No, since a "pair" is a number and has no intrinsic notion of shape. At any rate, this is just plain wrong, so it's hardy worth debating except as an amusing anecdote for you personally. Nexus501 (talk)

UK perspective
First to answer the previous query, it really is "pear-shaped". In the UK women proverbially become more pear-shaped as they mature, since they don't go in for cosmetic surgery the way some American Barbie dolls do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Philcha (talk • contribs)

US/Aus perspective
1) I've seen far more Aussie ladettes go under the knife here in Oz than I ever saw in California.

2) The poms here clearly see it as analogous to a married woman 'gone to shite'. Whether that was the original meaning, who knows. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jtdunlop (talk • contribs) 20:15, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

3) Propose expanding the meaning based upon how I've heard it used in context (defense industry in the USA) is analogous to the way brawny, big-chested strong men transform into bloated, large-wasted middle-aged men. Thus, 'going pear-shaped' is the exuberance/optimism and strength of youth turning into fat and enervated old-timers. Yurig24 (talk) 01:23, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

King Louis
from 1831 may warrant a mention. Drutt (talk) 17:26, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Tits-up
It's 'generally assumed' this is a derivation of pear-shaped? Any citations for that? "Tits up" simply means to have fallen flat on your back, like the colourful expression "arse over tit" means to have fallen forwards in a very ungainly manner. It is often used, like pear-shaped, to denote failure, but I don't think there's any evidence they are related. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.174.165.81 (talk) 14:13, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Tits-up is actually an aviation term. Early heads-up displays in fighter and attack aircraft used ASCII characters to denote the position of the aircraft against the background, to-wit: "--V--V--" with the Vs being the engines, gear, whatever. When inverted, the Vs (the "tits") in the symbology point up. If you're not planning to be inverted, being "tits up" is bad. In polite conversation, it's expressed "Tango Uniform." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.101.173.247 (talk) 16:42, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

External Link
The link to the OED is broken. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.46.207.62 (talk) 15:34, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Planning Context
I first heard this term 40 years ago in the US in the context of planning a project or other endeavour. The meaning in this case was not "awry, perhaps horribly wrong" but a refinement on this, that the situation was no longer as originally envisaged - not necessarily awry, nor bad, but different. In this context I haven't seen the meaning change, but the "horribly wrong" meaning is now more common in popular usage in Australia.

Used in context: "We'll work to the plan and if the situation changes we'll play it pear-shaped." means that we're prepared to divert from the plan should the need arise. Gabby33 (talk) 02:27, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

US vs elsewhere
The first paragraph of the article (at least today, April 16, 2014) describes the regionally-limited nature of the usage. I dispute this and suggested it be removed, or at least downplayed and moved later in the article, although I acknowledge it is MORE COMMON usage in the Commonwealth countries. I have heard the term used in Canada, and it was used on the US David Letterman show on Jan 30, 2014 (http://www.cbs.com/shows/late_show/wahoo_gazette/1001870) without any need for an explanation. I submit it is now well-known in standard English and is at least as well understood as other very standard, but uncommon, English words or phrases such as "foggiest idea", "didactic" or "subjunctive clause." Nexus501 (talk)


 * As a Canadian, I can confirm that pear-shaped is unremarkable, common coin in pubs and on hockey blogs (where else is there?) for at least the last decade, and was in some regular circulation all the way back to the mid nineties; before that time, I can no longer recall whether it was part of my regular idiom or not. Back in the late nineties, shows like Scrapheap Challenge did bring a fair amount of British idiom that wasn't in common circulation to more attention in Canadian lingo; one of the ones that did not rub off was "brilliant" or "bloody brilliant". I can also report that the "obscure" British slang "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkeys" has been heard uttered in Canadian English a time or two over the years, without an apple from British television. &mdash; MaxEnt 09:39, 5 April 2019 (UTC)