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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Listening to the radio this morning I heard the phrase “it’s all gone pear shaped”. It’s pretty commonly used here in the UK to describe a situation that’s gone sadly awry. Is it used in the same way elsewhere, and does anyone know its origin?
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sweet Thing, Atomica directed me to try piriform, which had an alt. sp. of pyriform. That rang a bell, so I searched, and...I don't know whether I am grinning or blushing the harder! AND, we never DID find the source! http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=5170
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"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. I 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."
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Doesn't seem the kind of origin which would bring it into general usage, though, Bill. I'd suggest that it describes something in the round which didn't quite make it.
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Oh, I dunno, pfranz; a whole lot of air-force (and army) slang got into the language around the time of the "nd World War. "Prang", meaning crash, were used about motor accidents for years afterwards, so was "it's a bit if a bind", meaning that it was an onerous duty.
The popularity of airforce slang was probably enhanced by a radio comedy show called Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh starring Kenneth Horne and Richard Murdoch as Officer-in-Charge and subaltern on a mythical airfield, Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, somewhere in southern England - the name itself is a skit on the type of village name common in those parts.
But the script was redolent with air force slang and some of it certainly became common usage. Having said that, i cannot recall that they ever used the expression, "pear-shaped."
However, there were other routes for slang to become common parlance.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've always associated "pear-shpaed" with good, singers' pear-shaped tones, Satie's Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear, so saying "something has gone all pear-shaped" meaning it's gone wrong doesn't sound right to me.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Well, Jackie, seems to me I should be blushing for not checking back myself! Anyway, thanks for that, it made fun reading and if I hadn’t posted then Dr Bill’s suggestion would not have been made. He may well be right I think; as Rhuby said, many RAF terms did get into the language, although recently this one seems to have had a new lease on life. Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh. My, that’s going back a long way. Remember the radio set that always took a long time to warm up? Sam Costa with his: 'Good morning Sir, was there something?' I found this: http:// http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/radio/mbitm.htmThere seem to be other sites, but I haven’t explored them.
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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What an excellent memory-lane, dxb! (once I had removed the redundant duplication of "http://")
I had forgotten Sam Costa's catch-phrase, but still remembered Dudley Davenport and, "I say! I am a fool!"
And Dickie Murdoch singing, to the tune of The Egyptian Ballet (?? not sure if that's the right name!) a set of nonsense verses, on the lines of; "My aunt's name is Aloisous Watermelon, // She lives down at Burton-on-Trent. // When she rides to market on a bicycle // She always gets her handle-bars bent." - and more of a similar nature.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Capfka: That was a quotation from an ex- Brit airforce person, apparently.
Armed forces phrases are taken over and changed by civlians. Capisce?
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Bill, I capiche how these things happen. It's just that I'm morally certain that's not how this one did. Much more mundane, I'm afraid.
And, Rhuby, my trouble an' strife is going to Burton-upon-Trent tomorrow to get her new van repaired. Hope this isn't a lomen. Damn. How did "lemon" get spelled that way anyway? Shuddap, Bill!
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