"posh"

Gerald Cohen gcohen at UMR.EDU
Tue Mar 14 01:54:44 UTC 2000


  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



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