"posh"

[Gerald Cohen]

  Two messages today (under "Halls of Ivy") from Anne Lambert and Victoria
Neufeldt discuss "posh".

     This word is treated in an article entitled "Posh," by J. Peter Maher,
in _Studies in Slang_, part 1 (=Forum Anglicum, vol. 14/1), edited by
Gerald Leonard Cohen,  Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1985.,  pp.
64-65.-----Maher derives "posh" from "poshed," which he suggests derives
from "polished."  He writes in part:

    "Everyone familiar with London  speech knows that the  _l_ of words
like _milk_, _I'll_, _well_ and such are "gulped";  after vowels the true
London accent pronounces _l_'s much like the _oo_ of _moon_.  When the
vowel before the _l_ is an _o_, the effect is to blend the two together.
No distinct _l_ results.  Londoners, in particular the Cockneys,  pronounce
the verb _to polish _ as _pawsh_, to write it in an American fashion, or
_posh_ to give it the authentic, if non-standard, British spelling.  This
verb is fully conjugated:  "I, you, we, they _posh_;  he, she, it _poshes_;
it is, they are _poshed_ types, or live in _posh(ed)_ digs."

-----Gerald Cohen





gcohen at umr.edu