The word, "Posh".

[BellyTank]

Something I thought interesting-

The origin of the word, "posh".

Here is a possibility:

A Nautical term, from the glory days of the British Empire and travel.

"Naval. This word, meaning "superior", is said to come from the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company's abbreviation for the phrase "Port Outward, Starboard Homeward", where the cabins were the cooler in the Red Sea and so the more attractive to passengers. "


Hmmm...


B
T

 

[Tomasso]

PISH POSH

 

[Fletch]

Always thought it came from plush. Could be wrong.

"Posh-with-a-capital-P. O. S. H. Posh."

 

[December]

"Posh-with-a-capital-P. O. S. H. Posh."

Best song ever!

 

[Mr Zablosky]

I heard the port out-starbaord home theory. If I read it, it must be true, but I didn't.

 

[BellyTank]

Oh, I believe the P&O story, just wanting to hear other theories.


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[Tomasso]

Oh, I believe the P&O story

Apparently you didn't click on my previous post.

Here you go:
http://books.google.com/books?id=qM...e&q=Port Outward, Starboard Homeward"&f=false

 

[Cigarband]

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pos1.htm

 

[BellyTank]

Apparently you didn't click on my previous post.

Yes, I read that excerpt just after I read the dictionary definition
and just before I started this thread.
I like that P&O deny it.

All the other factoids are very boring, indeed.



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[Edward]

The last I heard, that ghastly Beckham woman considered that she owned it, but I'm sure I read that a court had slapped her down on that one....

 

[Boodles]

Old folks in the states claimed that POSH was

Old folks in the states, people I knew 30 years ago and who used to travel on steamers, told me that POSH was indeed Port Out and Starboard Home but that it referred to the heyday of Brits traveling to the states in the cold waters of the North Sea. Different from the Red Sea theory, these people actually wanted the sunny side of the ship and so were berthed on the port side heading to America and on the starboard side on the return trip. Given the east-west route this theory is more plausible to me than the Red Sea thing, but who really knows.

 

[BellyTank]

Not SOPH, then.


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[Boodles]

Surely it was SOPH

Not SOPH, then.


B
T

Surely it was SOPH for those folks traveling from say NYC to the homelands. I guess SOPH just didn't sound like anything if spoken. POSH, whatever it actually stood for, trips over the Red Sea or the North Atlantic, the term really caught on. As an aside, the gentleman who long ago told me about the meaning of POSH also told me his version of the definition of the term dusey (not doozy as we often see). Duesy was a term used for something really fine or special and was derived from the automobile Duesenberg.

 

[Undertow]

Certainly hope this isn't one of those "Ship High In Transit" situations...

 

[BellyTank]

Duesy, Doozy, Dusey...

...it really is the Cadillac of verbal expressions of quality!





B
T

Surface freight on a Submarine.

 

[MisterCairo]

I've heard the port outbound, starboard home version referencing trans Atlantic crossings most often. Indeed, in addition to the southern exposure each way that would bring, I also saw one reference to a preference to face France on the way out of and in to the English channel, the author explaining that the coastline was more attractive to look at.

Considering that even on the clearest of days the coastline from the middle of the Channel is nothing more than a blurred line, I thought that was silly, but there you go, someone believed it!

 

[BellyTank]

It's nice that people believe these myths.

I recently flew from Stockholm to London, on a very clear day and as we
passed the coast of Jylland/Denmark and approached the Norfolk coast of England, I could clearly see the north coast of Europe-
Germany, Holland, Belgium and a bit of France.
Not so surprising really but very interesting.


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[MisterCairo]

We'll probably never know for sure where it came from:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq/posh.htm