In the days of steamer travel between England and India, wealthy patrons traveling with the Peninsular and Oriental Company reserved the choicest cabins on the ship, which were the ones that got the morning sun but were shaded in the afternoon—no air-conditioning in the nineteenth century. These cabins were on the left side of the ship on the way out, and the right side on the way home, and so were stamped “P.O.S.H.” to indicate that the ticket holder had a cabin that was port side out, starboard side home. The “posh” ticket, then, was for the moneyed, elegant folk, and it was this association
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