What is posh?

I don't think you should use the spoon to spread, the spoon is for placing a small portion of jam on the side of your plate prior to you using your knife to spread. All our jam and marmalade pots had silver spoons that sat through the glass lids.

Phew! People won't know that I'm common as muck.

I didn't meet any posh people until I was 19 and met my parents in law. First meeting was on their sailing yacht in St Malo harbour. Not knowing much about British customs, I was amazed at all the pre-lunch and pre-dinner drinks consumed( in cut glass, even on a boat). When asked ( on the first visit), what I would like to drink, I smiled at my lovely, charming future FiL and said, " Whatever you're having, sir". So I got drunk on pink gin first visit!

Don't know anyone posh now...but think that PiL were classy, rather than posh because they were very down to earth, ate left-overs, were frugal for themselves but generous to others, grew all their own veg, and polished their own silver!!

My Aunt had a television and a fridge we thought she was posh. That was back in the 50's

gillyknits DH says barth and parth and never drops his aitches, but he's not posh - he's Welsh. My South Yorkshire family (bath and path and not an aitch in sight), however, always thought he was very posh.

I have a noticeable Gloucestershire accent, and am a coal-miner's daughter, but when I went to live and work in Scotland, I was referred to as 'Yon posh Onglish wifey'

For us the posh kids had big houses with attics called the playroom and a mum who didn't work.

Ankers I'm intrigued! What does your posh friend do?!

The word POSH is a shipping term.
Port
Out
Starboard
Home.

How did it come to define a person's class ?

My friend was regarded as posh as they had afitted carpet and not lino and a rug in main bedroom.

If you have to thing about what is, or isn't posh, then you're not posh. People who are proper posh don't even think about that word.

Do for a living, or which ones on the list?

Far too many people like to think they're POSH. Sadly most of them are not.
Old money can denote status but does not necessarily mean posh. 'Lady Colin Cambell' thinks she's posh but is a poor excuse of a toff. The very opposite of posh for me is displaying yourself on reality TV for the whole world to see how 'entitled 'think you are! ! (And downright rude!!!)

Really posh people don't even think about poshness they just are.

And in their history, even if back 4 or 5 generations, they were even posher. It and wealth and behaviours were learnt and passed down.

My mum hated us using the word "posh" she said it was "common" to use that word! How funny!

Some of my ancestors were posh but not others (and not me) by any means. Maternal GGF hunted with the Quorn as my mother never tired of telling everyone and I never tired of quoting Oscar Wilde at her: 'the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable'. She would pretend not to hear.

There is a whole world of difference between the nouveau riche and the genuine article. The truly posh have quality clothes which are very old, ditto furniture, carpets etc. They say pudding and not dessert.
Sadly I don't belong in either category just your average working class woman.

Poshgran I grew up in a Corrie-type terraced house. I had a friend who lived in a prefab and I really envied her. I thought friends who lived in council houses were "posh".

Pigglywiggly - on Tyneside that's the definition of posh:
"Froot on the tyebl and neebody bad!"

Christinefrance I was just thinking that as I ate my pudding this evening.

People with piles of money may not be posh.
People who have threadbare carpets may well be posh.

My mother's relatives are descended from royalty - are they posh? Certainly it was only through marriage not the bloodline so we are not posh!!

Double-barrelled surnames (or triple) used to be posh but anyone and everyone these days can have a double-barrelled surname, even us plebs.

Posh to me was a shop bought school cardigan . Not my hand knitted one. How envious was I?

we plebs

I was obviously an egalitarian when I was at High School because I remember saying that my mother had made one of my school dresses and bought the other one; I didn't like the one she bought but liked the other one.
One girl in my class said that her mother had made her dress - all stitched by hand because they couldn't afford a sewing machine.
I was really impressed by that, unlike some of the other girls. All I thought about was the love that went into that dress.

Posh is what makes someone else uncomfortable.

OMG Jalima you're not.....
Carole Middleton are you??