Jamie Laing roasted for only just realising what ‘posh’ is thought to stand for
Jamie Laing was roasted after he thought he discovered where the word 'posh' had come from, only to be ratio'd by none other than Countdown's Susie Dent.
The TV presenter and Made In Chelsea star recently took to TikTok to tell his followers what the word means and where it comes from, or at least what he thought it did.
"The word 'posh' is actually an acronym. Back in the day we used to travel by boat and you could pay more money to sit on a certain side of the boat," he said, explaining a popular but incorrect meaning of the word.
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"If you were a higher net-worth individual you would sit on the Port side of the boat going out to sea."
"On the way home you would sit on the Starboard side because again it was less wet, less dangerous. Hence the saying 'posh', 'Port side out, Starboard home'. 'Posh' is an acronym."
However, it turns out that Laing's explanation was quite wrong and coming along to correct him was was none other than Countdown's queen of Dictionary Corner, Susie Dent, who dealt Laing quite a significant ratio.
In an exchange on X, formerly known as Twitter, Dent wrote: "It’s always been a great story but there’s no evidence for it Jamie. Our best bet is that it’s from a Romani word for money."
Below her Tweet someone else commented: "That is one hell of a way to say 'Stick to your lane and go make biscuits or something rich boy'."
Dent did say sorry for being a 'party pooper' but one can only respect the utmost dedication to proper etymology.
Sadly for those wanting to know what 'posh' actually stands for it's one of those words where we don't actually know and can only make a best guess.
You might be wondering where the false idea that the word 'posh' is an acronym for 'Port Out, Starboard Home' comes from.
According to Merriam-Webster, the people who make the American English dictionaries, this story likely comes from P&O being the main operator of ferries between the UK and India between 1842 and 1970.
Being on the Port side of the ship would have meant your cabin got the sunlight in the morning instead of the afternoon, meaning you could bask in the sunshine early in the day while your cabin would cool down again before bedtime.
On the return journey the reverse would be true, so the story goes that rich passengers would get tickets stamped with P.O.S.H, and P&O even used this in an advert in the 1960s.
However, like many things you see in adverts it's not real as Merriam-Webster says the first written instance of this P.O.S.H doesn't happen until 1935, where a letter describes it as a term which originated in America.
It turns out there's also no evidence that P&O ever stamped P.O.S.H on tickets either.
Joe Harker