A Brief History on POSH

Like all great lore, the etymological origins of posh are up for debate. Before the word became associated with London’s SW1 and SW3, its humble beginnings remain blurry.

Our favorite? The maritime acronym for port out, starboard home, natch.

I mean, that’s what our cap is a nod to—but we’ll take posh however it comes.

The most embellished version traces back to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), which ran steamship routes between England and India from 1842 to 1970. The popular journey passed through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. On the way to India, cabins on the port side caught the cooler morning light, while those on the starboard side baked in the afternoon heat.

For the upper class—who considered bronzed skin a mark of labor, not leisure—shade was paramount. They supposedly booked their cabins accordingly, requesting port out, starboard home. Tales of lore state that “P.O.S.H” was stamped on their tickets. Eventually, the acronym became a word of its own and the one we know today. 

A great story. 

But one with a few holes.

Roundtrip tickets were rare. Monsoon winds dictated route changes. Rather than POSH, the ideal cabin would have been “S.O.P.H.” And there’s little hard evidence that P.O.S.H. was ever stamped on a ticket. 

The first recorded mention of the acronymic origin wasn’t until 1935, when a letter to the editor of the London Times Literary Supplement wrote that POSH is “an American shipping term” referring to the best cabins. The writer did not elaborate further on what best meant.

Etymology experts state that the factual origin comes from the Romani people. In 17th-century England, posh-houri meant half-pence—later shortened to posh, meaning wealth rather than a cabin booking.

Other theories exist. Some believe that it came from overheard conversations between RAF officers at Cambridge. There is some evidence that it was simply born from advertisement printing errors. And there is the simple answer that it was just pure linguistic evolution from various dialects and colloquialisms.

But sometimes lore is more fun than fact. And if Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is to be believed, Grandpa Potts knew best when he sang: "Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital P-O-S-H, posh."