What is the origin of the word posh?
411949
The origin of the word is obscure. The first recorded use of the word was in the British satirical magazine Punch on 25 September 1918, although an earlier possible reference uses the word push [4]. The OED records a definition of the word as a noun from 1890, meaning "a dandy".\n\nA popular but false etymology states the expression originated from the phrase "Port Out, Starboard Home", which, before air-conditioning, were allegedly the most desirable cabin locations on ships travelling to and from British colonies in the Far East because they were shaded from the sun in both directions. However, extensive searching of shipping company records and tickets from that period has failed to reveal any evidence for explicit "Port Out, Starboard Home" reservations. [1][2][4].\n\nThis false definition is not helped by a song in the musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The song P.O.S.H. including the lyrics:\n\n"Whenever I'm bored I travel abroad but ever so properly, \n"Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital P-O-S-H, posh."
292922
not so sure of the origin and history behind the phrase but if you find it ranining cat's and dogs be careful not to step in a poodle... i looked it up for you and yu can find the answer at the link below
219032
Are you sure that you have the spelling right?  I have searched both Collins and Oxford online dictionaries and it is not on either, which leads me to believe that it isn't an accepted word.\n\nPerhaps if you provide the context and where the word comes from (i.e. is it a text book, a novel, someone elses writing?) people would find it easier to answer your question.
833115
Here's a website on word origins that has a few suggestions:\n\nhttp://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/97.html
279355
It comes from Cockney Rhyming slang, originating in the east end of London. (Cockneys are traditional those born within earshot of the bells of Bow Church)\n\nBristols = Bristol Cities = Titties.\n\nSome othe examples are\nButhers = Buthers Hook = Look\nBoat Race = Face\n\nIn use it would be something like "Jesus have a butchers at her bristols... shame about the boat race."\n\nhttp://www.lingo.arollo.com/cockney.html\n\nMany of the cockney rhyming slang terms have become every day terms around the UK now.
6952
You may have read the gossip sweeping the Internet on the origin of the word picnic. Some claim that picnic is derived from lynching parties of blacks. This is incorrect.\n\nInstead, the origin on the word picnic is French (piquenique) and was invented long before the atrocities towards blacks took place in America. This French word - piquenique - signifies an outing with food - similar to the word's meaning in English. At these piqueniques, the attendees would all bring food to the occasion, similar to what we call potlucks today. The outdoor concept of a picnic did not originate until the 19th century.\n\nSo, how did this word originate? We are unsure what the word pique actually means. There are two options: leisurely eating (picking) or a delicacy of food. Nique was selected since it rhymed with Pique.\n\nHistorians have found this French word in references outside of the French language as early as 1748 and into English by around 1800.
904166
The oldest form seems to have been spann-nyr, which is Old Norse for a fresh chip of wood, one just carved from timber by the woodman’s axe, so the very epitome of something new. (Nyr is our modern new, while spann is a chip, the source of our spoon, an implement that was originally always made from wood, so that wooden spoon is a retronym.) By about 1300 the Old Norse phrase had started to appear in English in the form span-new, a form that lasted into the nineteenth century.\n\nThis evolved by the sixteenth century into an elaborated form similar to the modern one: spick and span new, still with the old sense of something so new as to be pristine and unused. Spick here is a nail or spike. This form seems to have been inspired by a Dutch expression, spiksplinternieuw, which referred to a ship that was freshly built, so with all-new nails and timber. It is first found in Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives in 1579, “They were all in goodly gilt armours, and brave purple cassocks apon [upon] them, spicke, and spanne newe.”\n\nBy the middle of the following century, it had been shortened to our modern spick and span. It had also shifted sense to our current one, for something so neat and clean that it looks new and unused. Samuel Pepys is the first recorded user, in his diary for 15 November 1665: “My Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes.”
315236
It is the origin of the word and the meaning behind it\n\n"abbreviation  \n1460, from M.Fr. abréviation, from L.L. abbreviationem (nom. abbreviatio), from pp. of abbreviare "make brief," from L. ad "to" + breviare "shorten," from brevis "short, low, little, shallow" (see brief (adj.)). "
71297
Can you clarify your question?\n\nThe etymology of English and England is from the word Angles, Angles being the tribe of west germanic peoples who invaded/settled/conquered the islands of the British Isles.  England is derived from the germanic way of expressing the place where Angles occupy: Land of the Angles or Angle Land.\n\nEnglish is the language that is spoken in England just like Deutsch is the language spoken in Deutschland (German/Germany).
20785
The adjective "gaudy" comes from the Latin "gaudium," meaning joy or enjoyment.  The word "gaudy" arose prior to Gaudi, who was born in 1852 and died in 1926.
570776
Origins of the word JEWEL\n\nc.1290, "article of value used for adornment," Anglo-Fr. juel, O.Fr. juel, jouel "ornament, jewel" (12c.), perhaps from M.L. jocale, from L. jocus "pastime, sport," in V.L. "that which causes joy" (see joke). Another theory traces it to L. gaudium, also with a notion of "rejoice." Sense of "precious stone" developed early 14c.
1041300
The name "Pom" is said to derive from Australia's origins as a convict colony. Each unfortunate transported down under from Britain for his or her (mostly) petty crime was said to be a "Prisoner of Her Majesty" or POHM, later simplified to POM.  \n\nHowever, there is an alternative explanation as  Pom was around a few years before Word War II.  In fact, we first come across it in print during World War I, in 1914, as a derogatory term for an immigrant to Australia from England.  It is a quotation from D.H. Lawrence's Kangaroo in 1923 that gives us the most popularly accepted etymology of this word: "Pommy is supposed to be short for pomegranate. Pomegranate, pronounced invariably 'pommygranate', is a near enough rhyme to immigrant, in a naturally rhyming country. Furthermore, immigrants are known in their first months, before their blood ‘thins down’, by their round and ruddy cheeks. So we are told."  Slang lexicographer Eric Partridge also favors the pomegranate derivation, and he gives a slightly more detailed explanation by quoting from H.J. Rumsey's The Pommies (1920): "Colonial boys and girls, ready to find a nickname, were fond of rhyming Immigrant, Jimmy-grant, Pommegrant, and called it to the new chum children.  The name stuck and became abbreviated to pommy later on."  Partridge also believes that the word was being used as far back as the end of the 19th century.  It is often the case with slang that it is spoken for several years before it is put into writing. Anyhow, the OED is careful to note that there is no good evidence supporting the pomegranate derivation.
1094818
Never heard of that one!! Despite spending even longer in England than pniccimiss!!\n\nBut there are always new slang terms evolving, so it may be in use among the 'yoof' of today!!\n; )\n\nIt's not an official or colloquial 'English' term though, but it could become one with frequent use!
555893
It's slang from the UK & Ireland, a made up phrase to avoid cursing when surprised or annoyed.\n\nIt's also a slang term for a sexual position.
56943
Nickisbox answer is as correct as makes no difference. In fact it means 'socially correct behaviour'. Mind your manners; Mind your behaviour, etc.\n\nI've added this edit (26.01.06) because Puppyfred and MacMomma have referred to origins of the expressions and all of you might be interested in the following: \n\nThe phrase dates to the late 18th century. The pecise origin is not known, but several competing hypotheses seem to be the most likely.\n\n    * The first is that it derives from the phrase p and q which was an abbreviation for prime quality. This English dialectical term dates to the 17th century. So to mind your p's and q's would mean to be exacting in detail and ensure high quality.\n\n    * The second is that it refers to difficulty children had in learning to distinguish between the letters p and q, being mirror images of one another. To learn one's p's and q's is a phrase meaning to learn one's letters is first recorded around 1830--somewhat later but not impossible as the origin. Often this explanation is identified with printers and distinguish between a p and a q in type, but the early use exclusively deals with children, not printing.\n\n    * The third, first suggested by Farmer and Henley at the turn of the 20th century, is that the phrase comes from the practice of maintaining a tally in pubs and taverns. Marks under column P, for pint, or Q, for quart, would be made on a blackboard. To tell a bartender to mind his Ps and Qs would be to tell him to mind his own business and get back to work.\n\n    * Another commonly suggested explanation is that it is a variation on mind your pleases and thank yous, a plea for gentility and manners. There is no evidence to support this, nor does the please and thank you phrase appear anywhere except in explanations of the Ps and Qs origin.\n\n    * The last is from the world of printing. Typesetters had to be skilled in reading letters backward, as the blocks of type would have mirror images of the letters. The lower-case letters p and q were particularly difficult to distinguish because they are mirrors of one another and located in bins next to one another. Typesetters had to be particularly careful not to confuse the two.\n\nAny could be correct except perhaps the fourth which  has no foundation and seems false. I would go for the first as being the most plausible. \n\nThe third is interesting because the blackboard was normally made of slate (and still is in most English pubs although today used for other purposes) and leads to the origin of two other expressions: 'Put it on the slate' and 'Wipe the slate clean'. Workers used to be paid on Friday and by Monday had very little money left. So if they wanted to drink during the week they would ask the landlord to 'put it on the slate'. The landlord would put the customers initials on the board and by the side of it the number of drinks that had to be paid for. The following Friday the customer would pay his bill and the landlord would 'wipe the slate clean'. So, to put something on the slate means to get credit; to wipe the slate clean means to clear ones debts.
949337
Cloth comes from a Germanic root. In this case it is directly descended from the Old English clath.  Its plural form, clathas, gave us cloths and clothes.  Clothed was sometimes shortened to clad in Middle English. - copied from site called "Take our word for it."
654452
It's an old English proverb.\n\nIt means if you dress up nice, it will make a better person of you (Clothes make the man, is another such proverb). For eg., if you wear a designer dress/ suit, it will make you look more classy than shabby clothes.\n\nI think the origin was Thomas Hardy's Tess of d'Ubervilles? AM not sure