Everything's gone pear-shaped

[Skijumper]

What’s the origin of this phrase?

[Patty_O_Furniture]

The Word Detective offers up some explanation about airplanes. I don’t use the expression mainly because it just doesn’t sound like it fits the context of the sentence. Now that I see this goofy airplane explanation, I feel vindicated.

[don_t_ask]

The only other explanation I have seen also relates to 1940s RAF slang. It was supposedly an ironic allusion to the remodelled shape of an aircraft after it had crashed nose-first into the ground.

[mascaroni]

WAG: You marry her when she’s 21, slim waisted and top heavy… 20 years later…‘Everything’s gone pear shaped’

[RiverRunner]

@Attrayant

The Word Detective offers up some explanation about airplanes. I don’t use the expression mainly because it just doesn’t sound like it fits the context of the sentence. Now that I see this goofy airplane explanation, I feel vindicated.

Thanks for the Word Detective link; I didn’t think to try there, but I should have. That may be the best I’m going to get.

Thanks, all,
RR

[InvidiousCourgette]

there is a very similar thread that you have posted recently:

"Pear-Shaped?"

[Chefguy]

@InvidiousCourgette

there is a very similar thread that you have posted recently:

Hmmm…would a courgette gone pear-shaped be a butternut squash?