posh,port out starboard home. but why?
No, the word “posh” does not come from “port out, starboard home.” Virtually all etymologies that claim that a word came from an acronym before approximately 1920 are bogus. The following website suggests that the word might have come from a Romany (i.e., Gypsy) word.
Here’s the website:
G’day
In the days of the British Raj in India there was no air-conditioning. So passengers on liners in warm parts of the world preferred to be on the shady side of the ship. And the wealthy passengers would pay a premium on their fares to get the shady cabins.
Now on the way out to India the ships were steaming mostly eastish through the Mediterranean and across the Indian Ocean. The port side was to the north and in the shade. On the way Home the liners were steaming mostly westish across the Indian Ocean and through the Med. So the starboard-side cabins were shaded, cool, sought after, and expensive.
Wealthy passengers travelled in port-side cabins on the way out, and starboard-side cabins on the way Home.
Regards,
Agback
True, probably not the correct source of the term. But to answer the question, the why in that explanation is because the sides in question are the northern, or shaded side of the ship when travelling from England through the Med.
DancingFool
Well, even if that isn’t the true etymology, it is the reason that the folk etymology was plausible.
Agback
Wasn’t this on Radio 1 yesterday (on the Chris Moyles Show)?
Later in the show they said they received a lot of emails saying this fact is a common urban ledged, but it is indeed false.
Actually, it was the Final Jeopardy Answer a couple days ago. Question was “What is Posh.” The answer did not claim to be definitive.
More on the Gypsy/Romany origin of the word
http://www.word-detective.com/back-e.html#posh
I have to agree with our Australian friend Agback. On checking the website http://www.askoxford.com I found the following passage.
‘The story goes that the more well-to-do passengers travelling to and from India used to have POSH written against their bookings, standing for Port Out, Starboard Home' (indicating the more desirable cabins, on the shady side of the ship). Unfortunately, this story did not make its appearance until the 1930s, when the term had been in use for some twenty years, and the word does not appear to have been recorded in the form P.O.S.H.’, which would be expected if it had originated as an abbreviation. Despite exhaustive enquiries by the late Mr George Chowdharay-Best, researcher for the OED, including interviews with former travellers and inspection of shipping company documents, no supporting evidence has been found.’
This seems to be to be the most logical explanation and maybe the only one!
It’s not that they are “folk etymologies” that they are seem more plausible, it is that they involve acronymic theories, the “hidden knowledge” fallacy.
See Cecil’s article.
kris, welcome to the SDMB. I’m not sure why you are saying you agree with Agback, as it looks like your cite has blown his post’s theory out of the water. Well found, by the way, but it still isn’t a definite explanation – you’ve only debunked the most common misapprehension.