A new MRIW idea

[undyingking]

I was thinking about starting off a new series of posts relating to Mo's Rather Interesting World of Exploded Folk Etymologies. The idea is that it will reveal the true origins of popular words and phrases which we generally think we know where they come from, but are wrong.

Unlike MRIWFSORD, this will be more of an interactive thing. So for this first one, I want you to say in a comment what you think is the origin of the word "posh". No looking it up, just off the top of your head. Or if you know of a theory but also know or believe it to be wrong, then say that and you can look clever. Or indeed if you'd like to invent a theory now for entertainment purposes, go for it.

Comments

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

I have a future column for you - hello.
Not for the first or last time Wikipedia seems to have missed the point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello
Compare and contrast with http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~klong/papers/hello.txt

My reading is that 'hello' was promulgated by Edison, although some variants (hullo, halloo ?) did exist before, but as relatively uncommon words, and that hello (hallo, hullo, halloo, whatever) were not common greetings before.

I would welcome your thoughts.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I'll have a hunt and see if any further evidence about it is floating around the noosphere.