So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[GHT]

Though, as with many origin stories, there are those that doubt

https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq-posh

Did you not read the next paragraph of your link?
The best version of the story, with regards to P.O.S.H. associates the practice with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which from 1842 to 1970 was the major steamship carrier of passengers and mail between England and India. The P. & O. route went through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. The cabins on the port side on the way to India got the morning sun and had the rest of the day to cool off, while starboard ones got the afternoon sun, and were still quite hot at bedtime. On the return trip, the opposite was true. The cooler cabins, therefore, were the more desirable and were reserved for the most important and richest travellers. Their tickets were stamped P.O.S.H. to indicate these accommodations, in large violet letters. This account of the origin of posh was even used in advertising by P. & O. in the 1960's.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Are regional U.S. accents fading away? I’m concerned that they are being replaced by Hollywood English.

Naaht'slawng's I'maroun', t'ey ain't. Non-rhoticity fahreveh!

 

[rogueclimber]

Did you not read the next paragraph of your link?
The best version of the story, with regards to P.O.S.H. associates the practice with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which from 1842 to 1970 was the major steamship carrier of passengers and mail between England and India. The P. & O. route went through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. The cabins on the port side on the way to India got the morning sun and had the rest of the day to cool off, while starboard ones got the afternoon sun, and were still quite hot at bedtime. On the return trip, the opposite was true. The cooler cabins, therefore, were the more desirable and were reserved for the most important and richest travellers. Their tickets were stamped P.O.S.H. to indicate these accommodations, in large violet letters. This account of the origin of posh was even used in advertising by P. & O. in the 1960's.

I did read my link

The last several paragraphs dispel the previous ones...

We further conclude, then, that the acronymic theory of the origin of the adjective posh is simply a modern invention.

 

[tonyb]

Tony’s losing usage battle No. 452 …

“Incredibly” is NOT synonymous with “very.”

“Extraordinarily” gets a little closer, but it’s not a match, either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In New England dialect, both can be subbed by "wicked."

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

"Awesome" is not a suitable adjective for describing the order I just gave to a waiter.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

"Awesome" is not a suitable adjective for describing the order I just gave to a waiter.

''Bangers naked (no mash or chips), hard on raft, Mad MAX.''
sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, house brew Maxwell House coffee.

 

[rogueclimber]

Tony’s losing usage battle No. 452 …

“Incredibly” is NOT synonymous with “very.”

“Extraordinarily” gets a little closer, but it’s not a match, either.

Though Thesaurus.com seems to differ

adverb as in much, really; to a high degree
Synonyms
Strongest matches

• absolutely
• awfully
• certainly
• decidedly
• deeply
• eminently
• exceedingly
• excessively
• extraordinarily
• extremely
• greatly
• highly
• incredibly
• noticeably
• particularly
• pretty
• profoundly
• remarkably
• surprisingly
• terribly
• truly
• uncommonly
• unusually

My pedantic streak tends to show itself in the condemnation of modifiers on superlatives...

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Yeah, yeah, yeah

If they all meant the same thing, there would be no need for all those words.

There are differences in meaning in every word on that list, some subtle, some not so subtle. Rare are dead-on synonyms. A thesaurus might help a writer find a better word, but it seems more often than not it does just the opposite.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Righteous! (I can date the popular usage of that word to within a year or two. )

 

[Trenchfriend]

See, getting groceries for two weeks with my shopping trolley, another 80 bucks gone...

 

[ChiTownScion]

Even more fascinating from a dialectician's point of view is the very close intersection between classical Brooklynese and the New Orleans "Yat" dialect -- you listen to recordings of Louis Armstrong speaking and there are certain pronunciations he uses that would lead you to swear he came from Bensonhurst. The explanation, it seems, is that both dialects grow from the same profoundly-non-rhotic root, heavily influenced by various European, and especially Jewish, dialects.

A friend who lived there used to call up local radio talk shows in the voice of a Yat character that he invented named Angelo Robicheaux. He'd clean up his Angelo act by eliminating profanity for the radio, omitting the f-bomb that he would drop in every other sentence otherwise. Evidently, the radio hosts took him seriously. He'd usually complain about tourists driving up prices: how a single cookie from a bakery in the Quarter cost more than a whole bag of Chips Ahoy would at a grocery chain, that sort of thing.

Marlon Brando won praise for his Stanley Kowalski role: essentially Brooklynese intonation and diction from a New Orleans working class guy.

 

[rogueclimber]

See, getting groceries for two weeks with my shopping trolley, another 80 bucks gone...

Two weeks?!?!

That would get me and RogueWife through maybe 3 days.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
Yeah, no s***. We could eat on as little scratch as our German friend does, but it would be beans and rice and not much else.

 

[GHT]

^^^^^
Yeah, yeah, yeah

If they all meant the same thing, there would be no need for all those words.

There are differences in meaning in every word on that list, some subtle, some not so subtle. Rare are dead-on synonyms.

This could be more appropriate in the: "You know that you are getting old," thread. How I remember an English teacher at school. He encouraged reading and using a dictionary. We were told not to 'litter' our work with common word usage, it's something I still do to this day.

After re-reading anything that I have written, if I find something that's duplicated I try to change it. A word I once used, got marked up for originality. Seeing that I had used the word opposite twice in the same paragraph, one of them got changed to antithetical. A word that I came across in, of all places, a sales brochure. It's a good word to have tucked away ready to impress when the moment is right.

 

[rogueclimber]

^^^^^
Yeah, yeah, yeah

If they all meant the same thing, there would be no need for all those words.

There are differences in meaning in every word on that list, some subtle, some not so subtle. Rare are dead-on synonyms. A thesaurus might help a writer find a better word, but it seems more often than not it does just the opposite.

I knew there was something lurking in the recesses of my mind

“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.”
― N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

 

[tonyb]

This could be more appropriate in the: "You know that you are getting old," thread. How I remember an English teacher at school. He encouraged reading and using a dictionary. We were told not to 'litter' our work with common word usage, it's something I still do to this day.

After re-reading anything that I have written, if I find something that's duplicated I try to change it. A word I once used, got marked up for originality. Seeing that I had used the word opposite twice in the same paragraph, one of them got changed to antithetical. A word that I came across in, of all places, a sales brochure. It's a good word to have tucked away ready to impress when the moment is right.

Repetition can be an effective device. And it can be tedious.

I got nothing against the five-dollar word, provided it’s the better word than the five-cent one. Too often it isn’t. Stilted prose has me turning toward something else to read.

 

[GHT]

Repetition can be an effective device. And it can be tedious.

That's true, effective use of repetition to underscore his points and instil a sense of urgency, Churchill adeptly employed repetition. In his "Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat" speech, he reiterated the phrase "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" multiple times, fortifying the notion of the sacrifices essential for victory.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

It's a good word to have tucked away ready to impress when the moment is right.

A found under carnal knowledge righteous moment no doubt.

 

[GHT]

A found under carnal knowledge righteous moment no doubt.

Written like that the sentence looks so innocuous, but what a gem of an acronym lies within.