Posh……..a compliment or an insult?

As Allira said above, I associate the expression with accents and demeanour rather than wealth or status. If I was told someone was "frightfully posh" I would assume they probably spoke and behaved like Jacob Rees Mogg. The same expression could be used in a derogatory way to suggest they were somewhat effected and spoke with a plumb in their mouth. When used to describe cars it is usually complimentary but for restaurants or hotels it can indicate old fashioned and stuffy. It all depends on the nuance really.

He sounds like Kenneth Williams (who came from a working class background) but he's much less funny.

I refuse to believe anyone speaks like that naturally.

Nobody speaks like Kenneth Williams!

Of course not
It was a carefully crafted affectation.
Just like Rees Mogg.

youtu.be/GWTs9SP3AIc?si=6o4zgfjHvNbRWtqF

I take 'posh to mean being better quality. Like living in a better area or having a more expensive car .
If a person is posh I take that to mean they talk more upmarket , not like me then

Nor me.
When I first went to Scotland, the girl in the airport coffee shop screamed when I spoke.

I don’t mind “posh”.
What bothers me more is the sneer when “middle class” is delivered!

Shinamae Yes I have also heard that 'POSH' originated with the travelling on a ship, choosing the Port side to go Out and the Starboard side to come back Home, thereby choosing not to be travelling in the hot sun and keeping cool.

At my comprehensive high school , my friends considered me posh because my dad worked in the city and drove a jaguar.
My dad was working class boy from a south London council estate who worked bloody hard . He said he got his aspirations from the wealthy couple he stayed with when he was evacuated during the war .

I take it as a compliment when people say I’m posh. I’m not stuck-up and very down to earth but I speak well and am classy (another word which no doubt divides opinion!)

It makes absolutely no difference what class anyone is, or if they're posh or common, to me.
Why would it?
Why should it?

So certainly no sneering, because I couldn't care less.

I have only heard the word as an adjective to describe a place for example:

What a posh hotel ..

Vompliment

A vompliment?
I think you've hit on a great word, there.

For me - posh is a word to describe somebody who lives in a different world of wealth . Not praising or derogatory but just to explain that their expectations are very different to mine. for example a neighbour went to Austria for New Year's celebrations- I did not even go to another town in the UK. Posh to me means that those people never have known what it means to look after their budget or have ever faced poverty. It is all relative - in comparison I would be considered posh to a poor soul having to live on the streets.

M0nica

It is a put-down word, to devalue anyone who has anything you like but cannot afford.

Hence 'Ooh, that is a posh dress', 'they have a posh car', Oh you live in a pasoh area'.

Not a word I use, except in parenthesese

These are (in parentheses). You probably mean "in quotes".

Sorry. I had a posh education. :-)

MissAdventure

Erm, a beautiful home, with tasteful, no doubt expensive, furniture, towels, crockery, and a tended, neat, expansive garden.

A sleek car, with a beautiful, leather interior.

A pedigree dog, as you would see at crafts- groomed immaculately, with silken fur.

My ideas of posh, I suppose.

Spot on Miss A that to me is POSH too.

It's hard to put into words, glad you agree.

Never meant kindly except of biscuits

being able to play a muscial instrument beautifully, such as the violin

i love a posh hotel but not too posh

Nothing unkind in my definition.

There's so much more to 'posh' than just money.

like butter knives and desert wine