posh

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɒʃ/ (UK); /pɑʃ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is of uncertain origin.^[2][3][4] It perhaps comes from slang posh “a dandy” (1890),^[5][2][4] earlier thieves' slang for “money” or “a halfpenny” (1830),^[5][2][6] possibly from Romani pash (“half”).^[7][5][2] The popular story that it stands for “port out, starboard home”, the cooler and costlier cabins on ships between Britain and India, is without foundation;^[5][2][4] the acronym story is attested only from 1933.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Smart, stylish, first-rate; spelled push in a P. G. Wodehouse story of 1903.^[6][5][7]

Semantic evolution

The spelling posh appears in Punch in 1918.^[7][5][3] The early dates are one of the arguments against the acronym story.^[7] The word came to mean luxurious or elegant,^[4][3] and in British use also upper-class or snobbish.^[3][6][1]

Timeline

• 1830 – posh, money, a halfpenny (slang).^[6][5]
• 1890 – posh, a dandy (slang).^[5][2]
• 1903 – push, smart, stylish.^[5][7][6]
• 1918 – posh in Punch.^[7][5][3]
• 1919 – verb, to smarten up.^[6]
• 1933 – the “port out, starboard home” story first attested.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Elegant, luxurious and fashionable.
2. (British) Upper-class, or affecting to be so.

Word family

• poshly
• poshness

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin