Last friday a friend of mine told me the word "posh" derives from the sentence "Port Out, Starboard Home" that identified the best berths on the P&O vessels traveling between UK and India, those that stayed mostly in the shade during the trip, that were therefore cooler and more pricey. The word then started being used as a synonym of rich/elegant.
Sadly, there is no evidence to confirm this story - P&O tickets of this kind have never been found, maybe never issued, and have turned into a sort of etymological Holy Grail's.
Quite a few fake etymologies like this one are widespread enough to have turned into popular beliefs (among others: FUCK - Fornication Under Consent of the King, or GOLF - Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden). Wouldn't it be nice to make a game out of such words? Explain a bizarre one with an acronym, find out a reasonably realistic story, maybe win a trip to India in a POSH berth?
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