AboutTed Nesbitt Expertise I have an interest in the meanings of words and phrases, as well as how and when they became part of the English language. I enjoy
researching idioms, colloquialisms, dialects, and obscurities of
all kinds. I prefer short questions on a particular subject, and
I will not accept lengthy research projects or term papers. NOTE: ALLEXPERTS CLAIMS THAT I TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LATIN AND FROM LATIN TO ENGLISH. I DO NOT. ALLEXPERTS REFUSES TO DELETE THE LATIN-TO-ENGLISH SERVICE -- ONE THAT I DO NOT PROVIDE.
TRUST ME ON THIS: ALLEXPERTS IS WRONG. I DO NOT TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LANGUAGE. LOOK FOR A LANGUAGE EXPERT INSTEAD. ETYMOLOGY AND TRANSLATING SERVICES ARE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. ALLEXPERTS SHOULD KNOW THAT. ALLEXPERTS DOES NOT KNOW THAT. I HAVE TRIED FOR MANY YEARS TO GET THEM TO CHANGE. THEY WILL NOT. SORRY, BUT I DO NOT TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LATIN.
Experience I am the bibliographic instruction and reference librarian at a public
college. My master's thesis concerns William Faulkner's tragic novels. I formerly taught advanced placement English at two schools in the Philadelphia area.
I have been a member of the grammar and writing section of Allexperts
for more than a year.
Education/Credentials Masters degrees in English, philosophy, and library science.
Question Don't tknow whether this will get to you, given the above, but I'll try it anyway (with thanks in advance for your reading it if you do).
Watching Moulin Rouge this evening, I started wondering if "pear-shaped" has come into popular usage partly because of the lines from "Diamonds are a girl's best friend":
Square cut or pear-shaped,
these rocks won't lose their shape...
A casual listener to the song might mishear this as "When things go pear-shaped" or the like. Maybe some such misunderstanding is involved in popularising the phrase?
If not that, then think about a deflated football, which is also pear-shaped, or feels it when you try to kick it!
Thank you for your time,
Professor Timothy Chappell
Answer Dear Timothy:
I didn't respond when I first got your message, because I needed to do a little research. That "little" bit turned into several hours.
Is there the possibility that, given your knowledge of the "diamond/friends" song, you are "over-associating" the use of "pear-shaped" with it? A professor teaching children's literature might associate "pear-shaped" with Humpty Dumpty.
Anyhow, I have spent a great deal of time examining more than 25 dictionaries of slang, jargon, regionalisms [where I thought it most certainly WOULD appear and it did NOT], and three unabridged dictionaries that list the hyphenation, but do not give its etymology.
The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first WRITTEN usage as 1731. I am pasting in the entry below.
I searched the New York Times Historical Database and found that "pear shaped" or "pear-shaped" was first used in that newspaper on August 21, 1855, in an article about the American Association for the Advance of Science. The word was contained in a geological report. There are a total of 5,388 hits on the term in the NYT Historical Database.
Pear-shaped in connection with diamonds got 2,965 hits, the earliest of which was an article on page 8 of the February 11, 1863 edition: "The Loving Lilliputians." The article was about the P. T. Barnum sponsored wedding between General Tom Thumb and Queen Lavinia Warren. The bride wore earrings, described as "pear-shaped pendants" made of diamonds.
Although "diamonds are a girl's best friend," the etymology and usage of "pear-shaped" goes back much, much further than the song.
Ted Nesbitt
Here is the information from The Oxford English Dictionary. It is hard to read because of the dictionary's online format. I hope you can make out the timeline.
1. Shaped like a pear; tapering towards the top and rounded at the bottom. Now esp. of a person or a person's figure: wide-hipped.
1731 1890
1845
1815 1993
1941
1926
1731 P. MILLER Gardeners Dict. s.v. Acajou, In the Bottom of the Calyx is the Ovary, which becomes a soft Pear-shap'd Fruit. 1815 J. SMITH Panorama Sci. & Art II. 7 A pear-shaped glass vessel. 1845 N. P. WILLIS Dashes at Life with Free Pencil IV. 100 Some trifles bought of a pearshaped pawnbroker. 1890 O. WILDE Picture of Dorian Gray xi. 150 The ducal hat..was hung with pear-shaped pearls. 1926 Chambers's Jrnl. May 315/2 A sleek and pear-shaped gentleman heavily brilliantined and scented. 1941 R. HEADSTROM Adventures with Microscope (1977) v. 16 These stinging cells, or nematocysts as they are called..are small oval or pear-shaped bodies. 1993 Clothes Show Feb. 72/1 Attention to detail helps disguise a pear-shaped figure. Look for button-through styles that bring the eye to the middle of the body to draw attention away from the sides.
2. Of a musical or (more often) vocal tone: rich, mellow, sonorous.
1994
1977
1958
1925
1925 N.Y. Times 22 Mar. VII. 4/1 Imagine this director suggesting that you use a more pear-shaped tone in the love scene and then resort to the deeper curves for the denunciation. 1958 S. VAUGHAN in T. Cole & H. K. Chinoy Directors on Directing (rev. ed.) (1963) IV. 435 In such productions, the pearshaped tones have so little in common with the purpose of speech in life that the clever salesmanship of visual beauty is essential. 1977 C. MCCULLOUGH Thorn Birds v. 92 As he spoke to her Father Ralph's own speech became more pear-shaped, and quite lost its beguiling hint of Irishness. 1994 Billboard 20 Aug. 76/3 Hefty and pear-shaped, Walser's music..features arrangements that hearken back to Bob Wills.
3. colloq. (chiefly Brit., orig. R.A.F. slang). to go (also turn) pear-shaped: to go (badly) wrong, to go awry.
1999
1995
1989
1983
1983 J. ETHELL & A. PRICE Air War South Atlantic 158 There were two bangs very close together. The whole aircraft shook and things went ‘pear-shaped’ very quickly after that. The controls ceased to work, the nose started to go down. 1989 Air Forces Monthly Feb. 53/2 When a disadvantaged fighter manages to manoeuvre back into a neutral position, it is a sign to the attacker that things are already going pear-shaped. 1995 FourFourTwo Sept. 108/1 The day itself was one of those prize-winningly crappy days when everything went pear shaped. 1999 J. CASSIDY Street Life 118 Next we travelled to Bournemouth and it was there that things began to turn rather pear-shaped.
