# "Pear-Shaped?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 26, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212 "2004-05-26T18:16:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/1 "2004-05-26T18:16:00Z")
This is YAPOQ\*: What is the origin of “pear-shaped” as used to denote something having gone disastrously wrong? It is easy enough to understand certain other phrases – i.e., “the wheels fell off” – but pear-shaped?
[urbandictionary.com](http://urbandictionary.com) has this explanation:
_ **. . . based on the visualisation of a plan being like a perfect circle. When something goes wrong, the plan is distorted and becomes pear-shaped.** _
To me, this explanation is unsatisfying. Any other elucidators out there?
RR
\*Yet Another Phrase Origin Question
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### Author:  [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/2 "2004-05-26T18:22:39Z")
Total wild ass guess, but could it be to do with throwing clay, or blowing glass?
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### Author:  [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/3 "2004-05-26T18:27:01Z")
I have never heard it used the way the OP describes. I’ve only heard “pear-shaped” to describe a person’s body shape, in which case the origin is very apparent. Some people are shaped like pears.
If it is used the way the OP describes, I would guess that it originally comes from calling people pear-shaped and then broadening the term to include your definition.
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### Author:  [@critter42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/critter42)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/4 "2004-05-26T18:38:26Z")
I’ve always associated “pear-shaped” as a UK colloquialism, and not so prevalent here in the states (at least in the south). Not much help, but maybe a UK doper has more insight on this phrase
critter42
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/5 "2004-05-26T18:45:38Z")
> [@critter42](#):
>
> I’ve always associated “pear-shaped” as a UK colloquialism, and not so prevalent here in the states (at least in the South).
Ditto … never heard this expression in any way except concerning body shapes.
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### Author:  [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/6 "2004-05-26T19:01:40Z")
[Previous thread on the subject](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=251746&highlight=pear+shaped).
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/7 "2004-05-26T19:03:40Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#):
>
> Total wild ass guess, but could it be to do with throwing clay, or blowing glass?
Or more accurately: throwing glass and blowing Clay?
Never heard the term either except for endomorphs as noted above. How would you use it in a sentence? Would it be “…subsequent to the pear-shaped administration of Abu-Ghraib prison?”
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### Author:  [@InvidiousCourgette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InvidiousCourgette)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pear-shaped/247212/8 "2004-05-26T19:14:43Z")
A typical (UK) use of the expression would be: “it’s all gone pear-shaped” meaning it has all gone wrong. I can’t think of a way to use the expression in a significantly different way that sounds colloquially “correct”. The prison example you give does not work, to my ear at least.