[Ads-l] RES: New to me: "go pear-shaped"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Discussed here in '14.

JL

On Mon, May 9, 2016 at 2:44 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:

> David Daniel wrote:
>
>> Brits and other non-US English speakers like to use "went pear-shaped."
>> Don't know that I've ever heard it in the US, though I have noticed over
>> the
>> last ten-fifteen years or so that Britishisms have been creeping into
>> US-speak.
>>
>
> I'm pretty sure I first encountered it in the writings of the late Terry
> Pratchett. I've seen it used since in the SFnal community, AmE and BrE
> alike. Whether that was the vector into the wider community, I don't know.
>
> Jim Parish
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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