Etymologically
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posh

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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