square peg in a round hole

English

WOTD – 27 November 2023

Etymology

A British World War II-era poster encouraging tradesmen with certain skills to consider redeployment to a different role in the Army: “IF YOUR technical qualifications and experience are needed in the Army, and you are not yet a soldier-tradesman, then you MAY BE a square peg in a round hole.”

From the fact that a square peg fits poorly in a round hole.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skwɛə ˌpɛɡ ɪn‿ə ɹaʊnd ˈhəʊl/, /skwɛː-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /skwɛəɹ ˌpɛɡ ɪn‿ə ɹaʊnd ˈhoʊl/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl

Noun

square peg in a round hole (plural square pegs in round holes)

1. (idiomatic) Someone or something that does not fit well or at all in a certain setting; a misfit; hence, someone or something that will not succeed in an endeavour, except possibly with much effort and force.

   Synonym: like a fish out of water

   • [1873, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XXI, in Kenelm Chillingly: His Adventures and Opinions […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 352:

     ["]Now, your son's case is really your case—you see it through the medium of your likings and dislikings—and insist upon forcing a square peg into a round hole, because in a round hole you, being a round peg, feel tight and comfortable. Now I call that irrational." / "I don't see why my son has any right to fancy himself a square peg," said the farmer, doggedly, "when his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, have been round pegs; and it is agin' nature for any creature not to take after its own kind.["]]

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LIV, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 282:

     To these people, native and European, he was a queer fish, but they were used to queer fish, and they took him for granted; […] In England and France he was the square peg in the round hole, but here the holes were any sort of shape, and no sort of peg was quite amiss.

   • [1985 July 9, Eugene Gressman, witness, “Statement of a Panel, including: Elliot H. Levitas, Esq., Kilpatrick & Cody, Washington, DC; Stuart E. Eizenstat, Esq., Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, Washington, DC; Stan M. Brand, Esq., Brand & Lowell, Washington, DC; and Eugene Gressman, Professor of Constitutional Law, School of Law, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill”, in Rulemaking Procedures Reform Act of 1985: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-ninth Congress, First Session on S. 1145: A Bill to Increase the Accountability of, Policy Coordination by, and Management of Priorities by Agencies through an Improved Mechanism for Congressional Oversight of the Rules of Agencies […] (Serial J-99-38), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 77:

     It is almost as if you have guidelines for putting a square peg into a square hole, but we are trying to apply those same guidelines to put a square peg into a round hole.]

   • [2005, Gini Graham Scott, “Dealing with Danger”, in A Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses: Dealing with Bullies, Idiots, Back-stabbers, and Other Managers from Hell, New York, N.Y.: AMACOM, American Management Association, →ISBN, part V (Ethical Challenges), page 153:

     As they say, you can't fit a square peg in a round hole. If your boss is like that round hole and you are that square peg, you aren't going to fit in unless you re-shape your edges. If you can't do that, then look for that square hole where you will fit.]

Translations

someone or something that does not fit well or at all in a certain setting

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 牛頭唔搭馬嘴／牛头唔搭马嘴 (ngau⁴ tau⁴ m⁴ daap³ maa⁵ zeoi², literally “a cow’s head doesn’t fit with a horse’s mouth”) (idiom)

  Mandarin: 方枘圓鑿／方枘圆凿 (zh) (fāngruìyuánzuò, literally “a square handle on a round chisel”); 格格不入 (zh) (gégébùrù, literally “unable to enter the squares”); 六不答對／六不答对 (zh) (literally “six not answering correctly”) (Yangzhou), 驢脣不對馬嘴／驴唇不对马嘴 (lǘchún bù duì mǎzuǐ, literally “a donkey’s lips don’t fit with a horse’s mouth”) (idiom)

• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 重箱に鍋蓋 (じゅうばこになべぶた, jūbako ni nabebuta, literally “a (round) pot-lid on a jūbako [set of usually square tiered boxes]”)
• Macedonian: ри́ба на́ суво (ríba ná suvo, literally “fish on land”)
• Russian: как коро́ве седло́ (ru) (kak koróve sedló, literally “like a saddle [would fit/for] a cow”) (idiom)
• Turkish: dam başında saksağan vur beline kazmayı (idiom), bizim köpek sizin eve baltayı getirdimi (idiom)
• Vietnamese: râu ông nọ cắm cằm bà kia (literally “this gentleman’s beard transplanted onto that lady’s chin”)

See also

• square the circle (semantic overlap regarding a difficult problem)