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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Seeking origin of 'posh'
Message-ID: <1397@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 13-Apr-85 20:52:30 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.1397
Posted: Sat Apr 13 20:52:30 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Apr-85 04:09:44 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Blue Mouse Trailer Resort, Hellmouth, CA
Lines: 22

Does anyone have any more info about the origin of the word
'posh'?  Most smaller dictionaries say 'origin unknown', but
this is what I've been able to dig up so far:

	According to the Dictionary of American Slang, the claim is
	that 'posh' is said to derive from 'port out starboard home',
	referring to the preferred locaytion of a stateroom on a ship
	going out to India and again on a ship coming home to England;
	this claim was reported 1952.  The earliest written use is in
	1951 in the New Yorker.  It's meaning is given as 'smart; chic;
	expressive of good, or at least expensive, taste.'

	Webster's New World Dictionary meekly suggests that 'posh' comes
	from obsure British slang for a dandy, but it is uncertain.

	My 1958 Funk and Wagnalls International does not even have this
	word! (not surprising for relatively new slang, though).

Anyone out there with an OED or other etymological tools who can
help with this?
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett		...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun}!amdahl!gam