Posh!
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"Posh!" is an "up tempo" song and musical number from the popular 1968 Cubby Broccoli motion picture, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It is written by the songwriting team of Sherman & Sherman. In the film it is sung when "Grandpa Potts" (played by Lionel Jeffries) is being carried away in his outhouse. He sees the situation as serendipitous due until he finally meets his kidnapper, Baron Bombhurst in Vulgaria.
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[edit] Use in the Stage Musical
The song is also featured prominently in the 2002 and 2005 stage musical versions of the film. In the stage musical versions, Grandpa sings the song to the children in the family dining room and not while being kidnapped. The song is reprised a few times and is used as "Grandpa's" leit motif.
[edit] Inspiration & Etymology
The origin of the word is obscure. The first recorded use of the word was in the British satirical magazine Punch on 25 September 1918, although an earlier possible reference uses the word push [1]. The OED records a definition of the word as a noun from 1890, meaning "a dandy". A popular but false etymology states the expression originated from the phrase "Port Out, Starboard Home", which, before air-conditioning, were allegedly the most desirable cabin locations on ships travelling to and from British colonies in the Far East because they were shaded from the sun in both directions. However, extensive searching of shipping company records and tickets from that period has failed to reveal any evidence for explicit "Port Out, Starboard Home" reservations. [2][3][1]. The prevalence of this false etymology is somewhat encouraged by a song in the musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The song P.O.S.H. includes the lyrics:
- "Whenever I'm bored I travel abroad but ever so properly,
- Port out, starboard home, posh with a capital
- P-O-S-H- Posh!"
[edit] Literary Sources
- Sherman, Robert B. Walt's Time: from before to beyond, Santa Clarita: Camphor Tree Publishers, 1998.
