What is posh?

en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-posh
So sadly the P.O.S.H theory may not be true, shame it was a convenient one!
In Victorian times a"posh" was another word for a dandy or a "swell".
That would make sense.

Thanks Niobe.
The word must go back some time - I associate it with a character in The Diary of a Nobody - Murray Posh of 'Posh's Three Shilling Hats.' Written in the 1880s.

Tricia, I think it was because her parents owned their own semidetached house and the other Spice Girls came from council houses.

I wonder why Victoria Beckham was called Posh Spice?

It may have been an "on dit" but it was a good one, saying more about the originator than his subject

"Another piece of Heseltine folklore is a fabulously snobby comment recorded by the late political diarist Alan Clark: "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy his own furniture." "

Heseltine is now said to be worth £250 million.

Pensionpat It was Alan Clark who said that about Heseltine. But this has now been discounted as a myth.

You are not wrong Ann!

Really posh people don't even have to buy their own house .

I alternated between being posh and being'normal'. We grew up in Hong Kong, very cosmopolitan place , so didn't have an accent - there were so many to choose from. When we returned to the uk we did sound posh compared to our Lancastrian friends and family. We got a lot of teasing some of it not very nice, by the time we went back my sisters and I had learnt to speak Lancashire.
One of my posh(very) clients buys most of her clothes from charity shops, has holes in her vests and went to a very posh skiing holiday in ski pants from M&Co. she said her fellow guests would just assume they were designer!

I will google later pat but I thought it was said about Micheal Heseltine by Alan Clark. I could be wrong and often am. ☺

Michael Heseltine once said that if you had to buy your own furniture you were only middle class.

Jalima - sadly for them, they have almost run out of furniture that is handed down.

She is posh on both sides of her family, but on her dad's side, as he says sometimes, there were too many children born, so the wealth had to be divided up between more families.

I dont think I will post any more about them, I have probably posted enough already.

Jalima - sadly for them, they have almost run out of furniture that is handed down.

Jalima, yes you must be posh!

Moocow. They are lovely people. I think the genuinely posh ones usually are.
They dont need to score points for one thing. Everyone knows they are the real deal so to speak.

For proper posh people it has become a matter of holding onto their wealth.
Ironically, it is now not so much the land that can keep the wealth intact nowadays, but a matter of the farm cottages, barns etc, that can be the most lucrative part.
Or, if parts of your land happen to be in just the right place for a major new development of some sort. Their's has, twice!

They do put others at their ease but no-one can quite forget.

The worst thing for me is when she comes to my house, gulp! I have to quickly forget to compare her house to mine! And her cooking abilities!

My mum used that expression Legs55

Anyway, does it matter? Shouldn't we just take people as we find them?

Whitewave that's a spot on description, My DM still has her "telephone voice" although we were my no means posh. When I moved to Middlesex & worked in Surrey (well spoken rather than posh accent) I did notice my accent changing but dealing with Accountants on the phone from all parts of the UK it helped to speak clearly, however I've never lost all trace of my Yorkshire accent, even here in Devon people often ask me what part of Yorkshire I come from

People who come from money know how to treat "staff" in Bars, Restaurants, Shops, polite & appreciative of good service - new money is rude & overbearing, treat you as a personal slave

There's a saying up North "all fur coat & no knickers" for people who put on "airs & graces", usually when they're all top show, proper snobs of the Hyacinth Bucket variety

Pat - Just seen your post, yes, that's what I was thinking too!

Posh is, I think, in the eye (and ear!) of the beholder. It seems to me to imply that the person who says something is posh either feels inferior or is trying to put another person down. Neither is good.
Often someone is judged to be posh purely on their speech, I guess that is part of the reason that many people use more than one form of speech.

In my Fair Lady, Professor Higgins sings "when an Englishman speaks, it makes another Englishman despise him"

Ankers I think I heard that about furniture - posh people don't buy their furniture, they inherit it.

Only the hoi polloi have to buy furniture

We've just inherited some - are we posh?

Interesting Ankers I know someone like that and I've always thought her and her family to be posh but lovely people.

I've met a wide variety of people in my life and reached the conclusion that Some posh people aren't really posh as they class themselves as above others and I think if you are really posh you have perfect manners and that includes the ability to put others at ease very quickly, no matter their "class".

I googled 'Port out, starboard home' and that appears to be a myth. Peterborough United, however, are definitely 'The Posh' .
I can't believe people still take Nancy Mitford seriously. She wrote it slightly tongue in cheek anyway.
We'll be quoting John Betjeman's 'How to get on in society', which could be describing Hyacinth Bucket, next.

I was trying to remember more U and non U words.

Yes, Wot, Nancy Mitford wrote about U and non U, but she didn't invent it. Lavatory or loo is U and toilet is non U (or was that retorical?) No wonder My Fair Lady works.