posishn.
/pəˈzɪʃ/, U.S. /pəˈzɪʃ/ colloquial (originally U.S.)
= position n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > circumstance or circumstances > [noun] > state of affairs or situation
thingeOE
stallc1000
estrec1300
farea1325
arrayc1386
casea1393
costa1400
state of thingsa1500
style?a1505
predicament1586
facta1617
posture1620
picture1661
situation1750
position1829
lie1850
posish1859
state of play1916
the form1934
score1938
sitch1954
1859 C. A. Abbey Diary 21 Oct. in Before Mast (1989) xvi. 217 Without changing his ‘positch’.
1862 O. W. Norton Army Lett. (1903) 113 Snorting their impatience to ‘get into posish’, came the Monitor, the Galena and others.
1865 J. Pike Scout & Ranger i. 25 Some of the managers and their wives, feeling the importance of their ‘posish’, put on considerable ‘style’.
1889 K. Munroe Golden Days of ’49 vii. 69 All we've got to do is to get the cradle in posish.
1936 P. G. Wodehouse Laughing Gas xiii. 139 Well, you've gone and landed yourself in a nice posish. A dashed nice posish, I don't think.
1960 J. Grant Come again, Nurse x. 55 What's the coffee posish?
1991 S. Fry Liar (1992) ii. 66 ‘That's the posish, Gary,’ said Adrian when he had walked back from Newnham to St Matthew's.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1859