posh

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".^[1] 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 were talking about money."^[2]

Evidence exists for a slang sense from the 1890s meaning dandy, which is quite possibly related.^[3]

A popular folk etymology holds that the term is an acronym for "port out, starboard home",^[4] describing the cooler, north-facing cabins taken by the most aristocratic or rich passengers travelling from Britain to India and back. However, there is no evidence for this claim.^[5]

It could also possibly be a clipping of polished.^[6][7]

See also the articles mentioned in the References section below for additional discussion.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɑʃ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɒʃ/, IPA^(key): /pəʊʃ/ (humorous or upper-class)

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒʃ

posh (comparative posher or more posh, superlative poshest or most posh)

2. Associated with the upper classes.

   Synonym: upper-crust

   She talks with a posh accent.

4. Stylish; elegant; exclusive; luxurious; expensive.

   Synonym: high-end

   Near-synonym: plush

   After the performance, they went out to a very posh restaurant.

6. (usually offensive, especially in Ireland, Scotland, Northern England) Snobbish, materialistic, prejudiced, under the illusion that one is better than everyone else.

   Synonym: stuck-up

   We have a right posh git moving in next door.

posh

1. An exclamation expressing derision.
   • 1889: "The czar! Posh! I slap my fingers--I snap my fingers at him." — Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Was

• pish posh

posh (countable and uncountable, plural poshes)

1. (countable, UK, slang, obsolete) A halfpenny or other coin of little value.
2. (uncountable, UK, slang, obsolete) Money.

posh (third-person singular simple present poshes, present participle poshing, simple past and past participle poshed)

1. (normally in the phrasal verb posh up) To make posh or posher (more posh).

   Synonym: poshen

• “posh”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• (halfpenny; money): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

Compare pash (“smash, bash; of rain: fall heavily”).

posh (countable and uncountable, plural poshes)

1. (chiefly dialectal) A sudden and heavy fall or gush of rain or water.
   • 1897 March 6, Leamington Courier, quoted in the EDD:

     Did yer see what a posh the water came down the bruck ater the thaw, and no wonder the snow was a fut deep.

   • 1942, Thoroton Society, Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire:

     There has been quite a posh of rain.

   • 2021 July 28, Diana Elmore, Footprints in Time: Memoirs of Previous Lifetimes, Dorrance Publishing, →ISBN, page 83:

     I could hear the posh of water issuing from the mouth of a lion fountain that was set in a nearby niche. He was on his knees, kissing my feet and legs until I was in a state of churning lust.

2. (uncountable) Fragments produced by an impact.
3. (uncountable) Slush.

• Hosp., OHPs, PHOs, Soph, hops, hosp, phos, shop, soph

posh

1. cat

• poosh

Borrowed from English puss.

• IPA^(key): /poʂ/

posh

1. cat

   Poshnych valytaym. ― The cat is big.

• A Mojave Dictionary
• Languages of hunter-gatherers and their neighbors

• push

From Old Armenian փոշի (pʻoši). Doublet of poshík.

posh

1. dust

• Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1979), “փոշի”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, volume IV, Yerevan: University Press, page 517a
• Vaillant, Jean-Alexandre (1868), “pos'”, in Grammaire, dialogues et vocabulaire de la langue des Bohémiens ou Cigains (in French), Paris: Maisonneuve, page 123a