Origin of Posh

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Kurt from Howell, Texas.

Hi, Kurt. How are you doing?

I’m doing just fine.

Well, it’s been a couple of years, at least a couple of years, and I heard it on NPR of the Car Talk Boys, Tom and Ray.

And I was intrigued by it because one of my wife and my favorite, our favorite vacations are to go cruising.

And it pertained to early cruising.

And the word that I am trying to find out the origin to is posh, P-O-S-H.

Okay.

So you’re talking about, when you say cruising, you mean going on cruise ships to the Caribbean or someplace.

Correct.

Okay.

Correct.

Well, the story they said was in the early days when the Europeans were going on holiday, one of the modes of transportation across any body of water was going to be on cargo ships, and I guess they provided passage for passengers as well.

People that were of some affluence, they would pay the person giving the tickets an extra amount of money so they could stay out of the sun on the initial part of the voyage, and on the return trip, they would have paid more to, again, be out of the sun, the heated part of the ship, on the way home.

And the person writing out the ticket would just put, well, it was first put down as port out starboard home.

And eventually just cut short to POSH, P-O-S-H.

And the reason I was sticking with that story, it sounds like a good story.

But it seemed like a couple weeks after this particular program aired on Car Talk, there was some question about it, about that actually being the origin.

And I never did get the full details, and that’s why I’m calling you guys.

-huh.

Kurt, so the needle on your baloney meter is quivering up at high, right?

It was a cute story.

But, you know, I thought to myself, what if you started the voyage from the north or whatever?

I don’t know.

But anyway.

Kurt, I think you may have a career in etymology ahead of you.

Very, very good.

Yes, it sounds too good to be true.

And you know why that is?

Oh, it is.

It is too good to be true.

Okay.

You’re right, Kurt.

Most of those etymologies involving acronyms are when you see a word like posh and people tell a story that the letters actually stand for something.

Same with golf.

People say it means gentlemen only, ladies forbidden.

Well, that’s not true.

Ship high in transit.

Don’t buy any of those, okay?

Posh does not come from port out starboard home.

Say that again, Grant.

Say that plainly.

Say it again.

Posh does not come from port out starboard home.

It does not.

No question. It’s inarguable.

You’re right.

And one of the reasons we know this is that the story about the supposed origin of posh shows up decades after we first see the term.

It may come from a London street slang term for money, but the truth is we don’t know.

But, Kurt, you have done your fellow public radio listeners a service by calling us to express your suspicions.

You’re absolutely right.

Well, thank you so much.

Okay, Kurt. Thanks for calling. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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