posh

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Elegant, luxurious, and often expensive.

   They had dinner at a posh restaurant downtown.

2. 2
   adj

   Associated with the upper classes; upper-class in manner or speech.

   She speaks with a posh accent.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Posh is first recorded in 1914, but its origin remains uncertain. It may come from a 19th-century slang term for a dandy or from thieves’ slang for “money,” both of which suggest wealth. The familiar claim that it abbreviates “port out, starboard home” is unsupported by evidence.

Unknown. Most likely derived from Romani posh (“half”), either because posh-kooroona (“half a crown”) (originally a substantial sum of money) was used metaphorically for anything pricey or upper-class, or because posh-houri (“half-penny”) came to refer to money generally. A period slang dictionary defines "posh" as a term used by thieves for "money : generic, but specifically, a halfpenny or other small coin". An example is given from James Payn's The Eavesdropper (1888): "They used such funny terms: 'brads,' and 'dibbs,' and 'mopusses,' and 'posh' ... at last it was borne in upon me that they…

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