"posh"

[Victoria Neufeldt]

I have a vague idea that I've heard of this one too.  Can't see enough there
to suggest spending any time looking for corroborative evidence, though.
Even semantically it's a stretch.  "Fashionable" isn't even a near synonym
of "opulent".  And of course as has been pointed out here, it is amazing
that the concept of support in the way of actual usage does not seem to even
enter into people's minds when they put these stories forward.  I remember
receiving a letter, when I was at New World dictionaries some years ago,
offering the ship etymology; the writer presented it as fact, in an
articulate letter, saying that a relative (can't remember -- grandparent,
maybe) had actually been a passenger on these voyages.  He did not, however,
include any info about how he knew this, such as references this ancestor
had made to the term either orally or in letters, or artifacts the family
discovered in the ancestor's papers or whatever.  So I duly wrote back
saying that we were delighted to finally have a trail to follow and asked
him to send any evidence he might have.  Never heard from him again.  And
now WE WILL NEVER KNOW!

Victoria

Merriam-Webster, Inc. P.O. Box 281
Springfield, MA 01102
Tel: 413-734-3134  ext 124
Fax: 413-827-7262

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of GRADMA at UVVM.UVIC.CA
> Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 2:38 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "posh"
>
>
> Nobody has as yet come up with the supposed French etymology for
> "posh" which
> I was told at some time in my youth: French suits for men were at
> one point
> the latest fashion, and these French suits had "poches." now I
> can't imagine
> that English suits were pocketless, but maybe the French tailors
> went in for
> patch pockets, or something of the sort. Or maybe one of my
> French teachers
> (i.e. teachers of French - native French teachers were thin on
> the ground in
> Ontario in my school days) just had a vivid imagination....
>
> Barbara Harris.
>