Not the aga as in “Aga Khan,” this Aga is a type of cast-iron cooking range invented in Sweden in the early 1920s, which became popular in large country houses and middle class homes in the mid-20th century-so much so, in fact, that Aga saga is still a British slang expression for a genre of literature characterized by exaggerated stories set in rural middle class England. Tips are paid, according to some, “to insure promptness.” And then there are the old stories about "fornication under consent of the king” and fertilizer being labeled “ship high in transit,” and even that most 21st century of words, bae, is sometimes said to stand for “before anyone else.”īut if those are all backronyms, then what about the genuine acronyms? Well, here are the stories and meanings behind 25 words, names, and titles that you might not have realized actually stand for something. Likewise, golf-supposedly standing for “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden”-is another.
But the popular “port out starboard home” story makes posh a prime example of a backronym, a word mistakenly presumed to be an acronym. In fact, posh is more likely derived from nothing more than a 19th-century slang word for either a showily overdressed dandy or for basic coinage and cash. There’s an old language myth that claims posh stands for “port out, starboard home.” According to the tale, the first posh people were wealthy British ship passengers who could afford to book two cabins on their trips to India-one on the port side of the ship, the other on the starboard-to ensure that they had the most comfortable trips, away from the sun, when they headed out and when they returned home.
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