"It's Gone All Pear-Shaped!"

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Tuesday, June 4, 2002 11:36 am -0700 Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
wrote:

>> I think the most likely/closest is (2).  Something that's gone all
>> pear-shaped is something that should have had a nice
>> structure, but entropy
>> has had its way. (I think I can use the word 'entropy' that way.)
>
> Although it does work in a metaphorical sense, I'm not sure entropy is
> quite right. It's changing shape, not descending into a lower state of
> energy. "Gravity" would seem more appropriate, or perhaps "pastry" if
> we're talking about people.

I was thinking of the 'measure of disorder or randomness in a system'
(AHD4), since gravity has little to do with Scrabble games!

Lynne

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
Acting Director, MA in Applied Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320