| 释义 |
▪ I. posh, n.1|pɒʃ|
[dial. posh, pash: cf. pash n.2 4.]
1. dial. The fragments produced by a smash; a soft, decayed, rotten, or pulpy mass; a state of slush: see Eng. Dial. Dict.
[1790: see pash n.2 4.]
2. In full posh-ice: Ice broken into small fragments; brash-ice, porridge-ice.
1876Davis Polaris Exp. iii. 75 The vessel was forced through brash or posh ice. 1885G. J. Whyte-Melville In Lena Delta ii, Forcing our way through a stream of posh.
▪ II. † posh, n.2 Obs.|pɒʃ|
[App. thieves' slang (cf. Romany posh half).]
1. slang. Money; spec. a halfpenny; a coin of small value.
Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. posh n.4 provides evidence of dial. currency.
1830Sessions Papers Old Bailey, 1824–33 VI. 590/1 He had not got the posh (which means money) yet. 1839H. Brandon Poverty, Mendicity & Crime 164/2 Posh—a stiver, lowest price of money. Ibid. 168 The paper makers get the tats and never tip the motts a posh. [Translation] Thieves who pretend to belong to paper mills get the rags and never pay the women a farthing. 1846Swell's Night Guide 68 As I used to doss there sometimes, her nibs got sweet on me, and in course we did our reg'lars and the dossing mongary, lush and posh. 1859Hotten Dict. Slang 76 Posh, a half-penny, or trifling coin. 1886W. Newton Secrets Tramp Life Revealed 8 Posh..money of all kind. 1888in Farmer & Henley Slang (1902) V. 261/1 They used such funny terms: ‘brads’, and ‘dibbs’, and ‘mopusses’, and ‘posh’..at last it was borne in upon me that they were talking about money. 1892M. Williams Round London 67 That sort of patter..is the thing to get the posh. 1905Daily Chron. 2 Mar. 4/5 ‘But if I'd a brigh⁓full o' posh,’ she said, ‘I wouldn't parker no wedge to you.’
2. slang. A dandy.
Perh. a different word.
[1867E. FitzGerald Let. 5 Jan. in T. Wright Life E. FitzGerald (1904) II. 81, I believe I have smoked my pipe every evening but one with Posh [sc. the nickname of FitzGerald's fisherman, Joseph Fletcher] at his house. ]1890Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 146/2 Posh,..a dandy. [1892G. & W. Grossmith Diary of Nobody 197 Frank..said..he had a friend waiting outside for him, named Murray Posh, adding he was quite a swell.] 1902in Farmer & Henley Slang V. 261/1.
▪ III. posh, n.3|pɒʃ|
[Etym. unknown.]
Balderdash, rubbish, bosh.
1924Galsworthy White Monkey ii. xii. 214 Was he a fool? Could he not let well alone? Pity was posh! And yet! 1953A. Miller Crucible (1956) i. 20 Oh, posh!.. She took fright, is all. 1957J. Kerouac On Road (1958) i. viii. 49 You're talking absolute bullshit and Wolfean romantic posh!
▪ IV. posh, a. slang.|pɒʃ|
[Of obscure origin, but cf. posh n.2 The suggestion that this word is derived from the initials of ‘port outward, starboard home’, referring to the more expensive side for accommodation on ships formerly travelling between England and India, is often put forward but lacks foundation. The main objections to this derivation are listed by G. Chowdharay-Best in Mariner's Mirror (1971) Jan. 91–2.]
Smart, ‘swell’, ‘classy’; fine, splendid, stylish; first-rate. Also absol. as n.
The pronunciation |pəʊʃ|, a supposedly ‘posh’ or facetious way of saying the word, is occasionally heard. Quot. 1903 may exemplify a different word.
[1903Wodehouse Tales of St. Austin's 37 That waistcoat..being quite the most push thing of the sort in Cambridge.] 1918Punch 25 Sept. 204 Oh, yes, Mater, we had a posh time of it down there. 1923Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves vii. 72 Practically every posh family in the country has called him in at one time or another. 1925W. Deeping Sorrell & Son ii. 22 Tips. Don't forget the tips. If a man's obliging—... It's a posh job. 1927― Doomsday xiv. 153 ‘You like it.’ ‘It's the poshest thing I've ever seen, old chap.’ 1927― Kitty xxix. 372, I say—that's a posh show. 1927Daily Tel. 24 May 9 It was a club in Ham-yard—not a very posh club. 1929J. B. Priestley Good Companions ii. v. 391 I'd like to have..a very cosy car, small but frightfully posh. 1930Auden Poems 63 To be posh, we gather, One should have no father. 1935C. Day Lewis Time to Dance 32 For no silver posh Plane was their pigeon..But a craft of obsolete design. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 56 Posh, do the, to spend lavishly, do something ‘in style’. 1954[see ground n. 11 b]. 1957J. Osborne Look back in Anger i. 13 Jimmy: Haven't you read the other posh paper yet? Cliff: Which? Jimmy: Well, there are only two posh papers on a Sunday. 1958K. Amis I like it Here viii. 98 This railway..though posher and faster, had often reminded him of the tram-like train. 195920th Cent. Nov. 377 At the time..none of the posh papers carried television reviews. 1970[see chez]. 1977Lancashire Life Nov. 153/1 The poshest Granada Ghias..have electric windows. 1979E. Cave Blood Bond i. iii. 35 Charles's penchant for the grand—the ‘posh’ as Tom would have called it.
Add: Also pejoratively, (affecting to be) superior, upper-class, or genteel; ‘snooty’. (Earlier and further examples.)
1915Blackwood's Mag. CXCVIII. 255/2 Posh may be defined, very roughly, as a useless striving after gentlemanly culture. 1958A. Sillitoe Saturday Night & Sunday Morning vii. 95, I suppose you're too stuck up now you've got such a posh job. 1979London Rev. Bks. 25 Oct. 1/4 He gets a menial job at a posh private school. 1987N. Hinton Buddy's Song xiii. 73 The people were obviously very rich and they talked in an extremely posh way.
▪ V. posh, v.|pɒʃ|
[f. the adj.]
trans. To smarten up. Freq. refl. and pass. Hence ˈposhed-up a.
1919War Slang in Athenæum 22 Aug. 791/2 To ‘posh up’ was to make oneself look as smart as possible. 1932D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase xv. 197, I don't get time to posh myself up of a morning. 1955Times 29 June 12/5 Beautifully ‘poshed-up’ for this she is, though certainly she has never been allowed to look shabby overlong. 1959Oxf. Mail 1 June 3/6, I knew most of that stuff has been stolen; I wanted to posh up my old car. 1967R. Mackay House & Day 30 He was poshed up. That meant..a trip to the town. 1967P. Purser Twentymen xvi. 104 We..had dined at a rotten, poshed-up Thames pub. 1968T. Parker People of Streets 35 He'd..turn up at a big state ball all poshed up. 1975J. McClure Snake iii. 45 Who goes to the trouble to posh himself up for the postman?
▪ VI. posh, adv.|pɒʃ|
[f. the adj.]
In a ‘posh’ manner.
1957Listener 7 Nov. 739/1 A device to enable you to ‘write posh’, as it were. You look up the ‘vulgar’ words, and against them you find the more elegant. 1961P. Strevens Papers in Lang. (1965) xi. 130 The recent popularity of My Fair Lady led to another legend, that of phonetics as a system of teaching people to ‘speak posh’. 1972‘M. Innes’ Open House ii. 20 A crowd of electricians might well take him for a cunning crook talking posh. 1979R. Barnard Posthumous Papers iii. 33 Why do you sometimes talk Lancashire and sometimes talk posh?.. Not everyone can do the posh as well as you. |