spence (11/22/82)
>From the American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language......
Posh- Smart and Fashionable; elagant and luxurious exclusive.
Possibly and acronym for.....
"Port(side) out, starboard home"
With reference to accommodations on the SHADY and hence more expensive
side of ships plying between England and India.
Out of 34 replies......
11 agreed with AHD exactly
14 knew the acronym , but either gave no or the wrong explanation
8 knew part of the acronym
1 gave another explanation
Steve Spencer
harpo!spencehamilton (11/25/82)
#R:harpo:-119500:uicsovax:14500006:000:733
uicsovax!hamilton Nov 24 20:52:00 1982
i checked my Oxford American Dictionary and found this note:
"This word is sometimes said to have derived from the initials
of 'port out, starboard home', referring to the more expensive
side for accomodation on ships formerly traveling between
England and India. This suggestion lacks foundation. The
origin of 'posh' is uncertain."
i should point out that i am not entirely in awe of this supposedly
authoritative dictionary; in spite of 70K entries, it seems 80% of the
words i look up are not listed.
kinda ironic that we have the "American" dictionary of the "English"
language, and an "Oxford" (British) dictionary of the "American" language...
wayne ({decvax,ucbvax,harpo}!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsovax!)hamilton