Talk:go pear-shaped

Any Ideas?

I have been wondering where to " go pear shaped" comes from. How about pottery work using a wheel? More suggestions please!

I think this may be British usage. I've never heard it in the US but I heard it on TV used by a British person. (I then tried looking up pear-shaped here but didn't find it because I didn't look for go pear-shaped at the time). RJFJR 19:36, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

It’s widely used in Britain and in fact there was a TV programme on the BBC a good few years ago investigating the origin of words and phrases called ‘Balderdash and Piffle’ (presented by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Coren_Mitchell before she became famous or got married) and a subsequent book of the same name that I own. The theory that it comes from the shape a burst football was the favourite theory mentioned for this phrase IIRC, which makes sense, but also mentioned was that when pilots didn’t perform loop-the-loops correctly their flight paths were ‘pear-shaped’ (apparently this is a physical impossibility though). Overlordnat1 (talk) 15:13, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

Maybe some relation to belly up? Since pears wobble and fall down, and pear-shaped also describes a human body shape. Im really reaching here, I admit, though. —Soap— 10:03, 12 December 2023 (UTC)