Replies

Port Out Starboard Home = POSH, which meant they had the money and prestige to demand this arrangement that they viewed as advantages for some reason such as where the sun was in the mornings or the view, etc.

This was the sticker put on luggage and tickets of the elite sailing from England across the Atlantic. The port side going west and the starboard side going east are the southern exposures on each voyage, therefore the side with the sun. Much better, particularly in the north Atlantic where these trans-Atlantic ships traveled (think Titanic). Particularly when cabin heating was still a hit or miss thing. Having a sunny exposure was much more comfrotable.

Of course, for Americans making the reverse arrangments would apply, the "good" cabins would have been SOPH. Wonder why that didn't catch on over here? You wonder if some gauche Americans insisted on POSH accomodations, since they were the "good" ones, without realizing what it was about?

I believe the POSH acronym is usually attributed to going through the Suez Canal, rather than crossing the Atlantic. But the Oxfored English Dictionary even has its doubts about that:

(pQS) 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.]

They seem to think it has more to do with a Romany (i.e., Gypsy) term for money:

(pQS) [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.