“Dear Dr. Kim:
“I sometimes hear Brits say, ‘It’s gone pear-shaped’ when a situation has taken a turn for the worse. What does that expression mean, exactly?”
–Puzzled Yank
Dear Puzzled:
Hell if I know. Most of the time, Brits spout some meaningless gobbledegook at you and when you look at them quizzically, they act like you’re the stupid one — when in fact they’re just fucking up the language that they themselves are supposed to have invented.
But to answer your question as best I can: I think that “pear-shaped” has the opposite meaning of what you’re thinking. Here’s my idea of pear-shaped:
…and in no way, shape or form can this be regarded as A Bad Thing. Hope this helps.
— Dr. Kim
Man that’s seemingly one fine ho right there!
Pear shaped is as opposed to round shaped, you know, regular and even.
Common folk, (of which I am one), sometimes refer to things having gone shit shaped.
No explanation needed there.
Dear Doctor Kim:
Please rotate that pear so we can examine it from all sides, which will better enable us to render a proper verdict.
(Yikes!)
I’m studying the picture and can’t find the problem with pear shaped. No one help me. I’m sure I can figure this out with enough studding, I mean studying
Oh, my! I do LOVE me some pears!
“Pear-Shaped” comes from the ancient past where finicky electronics adjustments were made using a cathode ray oscilloscope to determine if the adjustments were corrrect.
If the adjustments were correct, the scope would display a circle; any deviations would result in various other shapes. The worst would be when the display was pear-shaped and you knew you were in for a long series of back-and-forth adjustments to get it right.
https://www.vedantu.com/maths/lissajous-figure