different between posh vs flash

English

Etymology

Unknown.

Most likely derived from Romani posh (“half”), either because posh-kooroona (“half a crown”) (originally a substantial sum of money) was used metaphorically for anything pricey or upper-class, or because posh-houri (“half-penny”) became a general term for money.

A period slang dictionary defines "posh" as a term used by thieves for "money : generic, but specifically, a halfpenny or other small coin". An example is given from Page's Eavesdropper (1888): "They used such funny terms: 'brads,' and 'dibbs,' and 'mopusses,' and 'posh' ... at last it was borne in upon me that they were talking about money."

Evidence exists for a slang sense from the 1890s meaning dandy, which is quite possibly related.

A popular folk etymology holds that the term is an acronym for "port out, starboard home", describing the cooler, north-facing cabins taken by the most aristocratic or rich passengers travelling from Britain to India and back. However, there is no evidence for this claim.

See also the articles mentioned in the References section below for additional discussion.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /p??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p??/, IPA^(key): /p???/ (humorous or upper-class)
• Rhymes: -??

Adjective

posh (comparative posher or more posh, superlative poshest or most posh)

1. Associated with the upper classes.

2. Stylish, elegant, exclusive (expensive).

3. (usually offensive, especially in Scotland and Northern England) Snobbish, materialistic, prejudiced, under the illusion that one is better than everyone else.

Quotations

• 1919: "Well, it ain't one of the classic events. It were run over there." Docker jerked a thumb vaguely in the direction of France. "At a 'Concours Hippique,' which is posh for 'Race Meeting.' — Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, June 18, 1919

Derived terms

• posh wank
• poshen
• poshdom
• poshful
• poshly
• poshness
• posho
• poshy

Translations

Interjection

posh!

1. An exclamation expressing derision.
   • 1889: "The czar! Posh! I slap my fingers--I snap my fingers at him." — Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Was

Noun

posh (uncountable)

1. fragments produced by an impact
2. slush

Verb

posh (third-person singular simple present poshes, present participle poshing, simple past and past participle poshed)

1. (normally in the phrasal verb posh up) To make posh, or posher.

   Synonym: poshen

References

• posh at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Hosp., OHPs, PHOs, Soph, hops, hosp, phos, shop, soph

Maricopa

Noun

posh

1. cat

Romani

Alternative forms

• push

Etymology

From Old Armenian ???? (p?oši). Doublet of poshík.

Noun

posh

1. dust

References

• A?a?ean, Hra??eay (1979) , “????”, in Hayer?n armatakan ba?aran [Dictionary of Armenian Root Words] (in Armenian), volume IV, 2nd edition, reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press, page 517a
• Vaillant, Jean-Alexandre (1868) , “pos'”, in Grammaire, dialogues et vocabulaire de la langue des Bohémiens ou Cigains (in French), Paris: Maisonneuve, page 123a

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: fl?sh, IPA^(key): /flæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).

Verb

flash (third-person singular simple present flashes, present participle flashing, simple past and past participle flashed)

1. (transitive) To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.

2. (intransitive) To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
3. (intransitive) To be visible briefly.
4. (transitive) To make visible briefly.
5. (transitive, intransitive, informal) To briefly, and often unintentionally, expose one's naked body or underwear, or part of it, in public. (Contrast streak.)

6. (transitive, informal) To show or expose an "inappropriate" part of the body to someone for humorous reasons or as an act of contempt.
7. (figuratively) To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
8. To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.

9. To communicate quickly.

10. To move, or cause to move, suddenly.
11. (transitive) To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.

12. (intransitive, of liquid) To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
13. (transitive, climbing) To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
14. (transitive, computing) To write to the memory of (an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge).
15. (transitive, glassmaking) To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
16. (transitive, glassmaking) To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
17. (transitive) To send by some startling or sudden means.
18. (intransitive) To burst out into violence.
19. (juggling) To perform a flash.
20. (metallurgy) To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
21. (transitive, obsolete) To trick up in a showy manner.
22. (transitive, obsolete) To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed for W[illiam] Ponsonbie, OCLC 18024649, book II, canto VI, stanza XLII; republished as The Faerie Queene. By Edmund Spenser. With an Exact Collation of the Two Original Editions, Published by Himself at London in Quarto; the Former Containing the First Three Books Printed in 1590, and the Latter the Six Books in 1596. To which are Now Added, a New Life of the Author, and also a Glossary. Adorn'd with Thirty-two Copper-Plates, from the Original Drawings of the late W. Kent, Esq.; Architect and Principal Painter to His Majesty, volume I, London: Printed for J. Brindley, in New Bond-Street, and S. Wright, Clerk of His Majesty's Works, at Hampton-Court, 1751, OCLC 642577152, page 316:

      The varlet ?aw, when to the flood he came, / How without ?top or ?tay he fiercely lept, / And deep him?elfe beducked in the ?ame, / That in the lake his loftie cre?t was ?teept, / Ne of his ?afetie ?eemed care he kept, / But with his raging armes he rudely fla?hd / The waves about, and all his armour ?wept, / That all the bloud and filth away was wa?ht, / Yet ?till he bet the water, and the billows da?ht.

Synonyms

• (to briefly illuminate): glint
• (telephoning): beep

Derived terms

Related terms

• flush (possibly)

Translations

See also

• gleam
• (to expose one's naked body or underwear): wardrobe malfunction

Noun

flash (plural flashes)

1. A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.
2. A very short amount of time.
3. (colloquial, US) A flashlight; an electric torch.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, OCLC 747046957; republished London: Penguin Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-241-95628-1, page 34:

     I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car.

4. (figuratively) A sudden and brilliant burst, as of genius or wit.
5. Material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould.
6. (Britain, Cockney) The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.
8. (juggling) A pattern where each prop is thrown and caught only once.
9. (linguistics) A language, created by a minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class.
10. (photography) Clipping of camera flash (“a device used to produce a flash of artificial light to help illuminate a scene”).
11. (archaic) A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
12. (military) A form of military insignia.

13. (computing, uncountable) Clipping of flash memory.

14. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genera Artipe, Deudorix and Rapala.
15. A tattoo flash.
16. The sudden sensation of being "high" after taking a recreational drug.
    • 1973, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Proper and Improper Use of Drugs by Athletes: Hearings (page 645)

      A few seconds following the injection, the user experiences a sudden, intense generalized sensation which has both physiological and psychological characteristics. […] pure, commercially produced products do not give a good flash […]

    • 1976, Robert H. Coombs, Lincoln J. Fry, Patricia G. Lewis, Socialization in Drug Abuse (page 123)

      The flash — the odd combination of a cocoon-comfort and an inexplicable physical ascendency to a "high" — provides the major incentive for the new experimenter to move to the next phase of his career.

17. (dated) A newsflash.
    • 1931, George Seldes, Can These Things Be! (volume 25, page 274)

      The United Press got the flash "Germans declare martial law in Ruhr" […]

Synonyms

• (burst of light): gleam, glint
• (material left around the edge of a mould): moulding flash, molding flash

Antonyms

• (very short amount of time): aeon

Hypernyms

• (burst of light): light

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• glimmer
• shimmer
• sparkle
• twinkle

Adjective

flash (comparative more flash, superlative most flash)

1. (Britain and New Zealand, slang) Expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.
   • 1892, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Ironbark

     The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are,

     He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;

2. (Britain, of a person) Having plenty of ready money.
3. (Britain, of a person) Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
   • 1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 1:

     Bit of a flash git, don't you think?

4. (US, slang) Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
5. (slang, obsolete) Relating to thieves and vagabonds.

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “flash”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• For the sense ‘a short period of time’, the 1858 Notes and Queries of Martim de Albuquerque was consulted. From page 437 of the sixth volume of the second series, published in London by Bell & Dally, 186 Fleet Street, in 1858 :

  Ought we not to collect for posterity the various ways in which very short times are denoted. Besides the one at the head, there are, — in no time, in next to no time, in less than no time, in a trice, in a jiffy, in a brace of shakes, before you can say Jack Robinson, in a crack, in the squeezing of a lemon, in the doubling of your fist, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, in an instant, in a flash.

Etymology 2

From Middle English flasche, flaske; compare Old French flache, French flaque, which is of Germanic origin, akin to Middle Dutch vlacke (“an estuary, flats with stagnant pools”).

Noun

flash (plural flashes)

1. A pool.
   • a. 1646, Jeremiah Burroughs, The Excellency of Holy Courage in Evil Times

     their hearts lie lumpish as a Log that lies in a flash of water seven years together

2. (engineering) A reservoir and sluiceway beside a navigable stream, just above a shoal, so that the stream may pour in water as boats pass, and thus bear them over the shoal.

Derived terms

• flash wheel

Further reading

• flash on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• halfs

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English flash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fla?/

Noun

flash m (plural flashs)

1. flash (burst of light)
2. (photography) flash
3. newsflash
4. (juggling) flash

Derived terms

• flasher

Further reading

• “flash” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English flash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fla?/, [?fla?]

Noun

flash m (plural flashes)

1. (photography) flash