Posh……..a compliment or an insult?

Yes, I knew someone who earned an absolute fortune,but he wasn't posh.
His wife, who earned far less, was decidedly posh. (And much more fun, because she wasn't trying to be anything she wasn't)

Oops -posh alert - do you mean dessert wine?!

The old poshometer is bleeping, tastefully.

Aveline

Oops -posh alert - do you mean dessert wine?!

no, I meant water

or as we call it in our house, council pop

The word I remember being used in my childhood was 'snob/snobby'. When an 'out-of-town' surcharge was added to the fees of the private school I went to, most of us from our village in the next county who had travelled were taken away from it by our parents and sent to a Secondary school in a town in the same county. There we were taunted by the boys as being 'High School Snobs'. I do feel 'posh' is used in a similar way.

I think being defensive or uncomfortable about perceived "poshness" shows that someone's not really posh.

That's why I'm happy to be called posh. I'm snobbish too. None of this 'snobby' nonsense!

I have champagne tastes on a lemonade budget luckily I am creative and live near a home sense

LaCrepescule

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!)

But what does 'classy' mean?

And, with no offence meant, who decides that a person is classy.

'classy' isn't a very posh word.

Shinamae

I believe it was a status thing when people travelled on ships
If they were rich enough, they could travel Port out starboard Home… And that was apparently a good thing 🤓

That’s interesting. I never knew that, so thanks. Happy New Year

😂

Last comment meant for JaneJudge!

escaped

Interesting that the word "posh" has come up a few times to do with a car here.
Victoria Adams, now Beckham, was named "Posh Spice" because her dad drove a Rolls.

I thought it was because she had a high opinion of herself and saw herself as a cut above.

Tenko

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 was bullied as a young child at school in the east end of Glasgow, for speaking in a 'posh' voice, my dad driving a Daimler and owning a business and my mother bringing me hot orange in a flask at break time. That was hard to adjust to, especially as my grandfather had been a 'barrow boy' in the roughest part of Glasgow. I had no idea I could be perceived as 'posh'. I subsequently changed my accent (much to my mother's annoyance as she had aspirations to be 'posh') and banned my mother from the school gates. There wasn't much I could do about my dad, his business and his cars. I'm guessing if I had gone to a west end school, I would have been bullied for my accent not being 'posh' ENOUGH!

I think they all had to have some defining thing about them, and for posh, it was that her dad had a roller.

I think you were brought up posh 😀

petra

Deedaa

I upset a lady I know by telling her about a house I had taken a parcel to. I said 'It's one of the posh ones with a double garage" "But I've got a double garage!" she said, looking rather offended. Having heard about some of the holidays she goes on I think some people would consider her posh.

Why would you say it’s posh because it has a double garage 🤷‍♀️
Genuine question.

Might it be because it implies two cars in the family?

I think the double garage is incidental to the overall poshness, maybe?

JaneJudge

or as we call it in our house, council pop

It’s ‘Adam’s ale’ in our house.

I don’t think posh and snob are interchangeable terms. I think of a snob as someone who looks down on others. Someone posh might also be a snob but, in my view, acting snobbishly would make them not posh.

I did recall last night of someone I know who is considered by many to be posh. Big old house (also very cold and draughty!!), family antique furnishings, old cars, a golden Labrador. She wears traditional clothes, wool jumpers, woollen trousers and speaks with a cut glass accent, went to boarding school and has on the wall the childhood watercolour portrait her parents commissioned.

She’s also ordinary, friendly and kind, not at all snobbish.

MissAdventure

How could I forget?
A beautifully turned out man, in a well fitting suit, who smells gorgeous, is well spoken, and appears to be very self assured and competent.

Mmmmm...... love that description~~~

Me too.
It's of a real man I met, years ago.

Meanings change over time and are depend re not on context. Posh can be used as either a compliment or as a slightly derogatory term.

Much like the word 'wicked' means unkind, evil etc. to many people, but is also used is used by other people to mean good.

Could be an insult or a compliment it depends entirely on who is saying it and the context.