posh

Romani

posh

“Half”; proposed source of compounds for half-crown or halfpenny

British thieves’ slang, 19th century

posh

Money, especially a halfpenny or other small coin; attested by the 1830s

British slang, 1890s

posh

A dandy or smartly dressed person

British English, 1903–1914

posh

“Push” in 1903, then “posh,” meaning superior or stylish clothing and eventually upper-class

Modern English

posh

Word Ancestry

posh

Romani

posh

“Half”; proposed source of compounds for half-crown or halfpenny

British thieves’ slang, 19th century

posh

Money, especially a halfpenny or other small coin; attested by the 1830s

British slang, 1890s

posh

A dandy or smartly dressed person

British English, 1903–1914

posh

“Push” in 1903, then “posh,” meaning superior or stylish clothing and eventually upper-class

Modern English

posh

“

A word now associated with champagne, velvet ropes, and people who pronounce “garage” with confidence may have begun as thieves’ slang for a halfpenny. The leading theory traces it to Romani posh, “half,” perhaps through expressions such as posh-kooroona, “half-crown,” or posh-houri, “halfpenny”; by 1888, James Payn could put “posh” among a list of thieves’ terms for money in The Eavesdropper. By the 1890s it had acquired the human shape of “a dandy,” and British soldiers were using it for clothing outside ordinary regulation kit by 1914. The famous explanation “port out, starboard home”—supposedly describing the shady cabins chosen by wealthy passengers sailing to India—was not recorded until 1933 and has no earlier evidence, so it is a glittering story rather than a secure origin. Posh therefore began not in an aristocrat’s cabin but somewhere closer to a small coin, a sharp dresser, and the wonderfully untidy machinery of slang.

The Story

“

A word now associated with champagne, velvet ropes, and people who pronounce “garage” with confidence may have begun as thieves’ slang for a halfpenny. The leading theory traces it to Romani posh, “half,” perhaps through expressions such as posh-kooroona, “half-crown,” or posh-houri, “halfpenny”; by 1888, James Payn could put “posh” among a list of thieves’ terms for money in The Eavesdropper. By the 1890s it had acquired the human shape of “a dandy,” and British soldiers were using it for clothing outside ordinary regulation kit by 1914. The famous explanation “port out, starboard home”—supposedly describing the shady cabins chosen by wealthy passengers sailing to India—was not recorded until 1933 and has no earlier evidence, so it is a glittering story rather than a secure origin. Posh therefore began not in an aristocrat’s cabin but somewhere closer to a small coin, a sharp dresser, and the wonderfully untidy machinery of slang.