Just got the word. Of the day, that is.
I am more familiar with English speech than with American and I did not know the word swank. Is it synonym to posh? I mean, does it have the same connotation?
Is swank also used in Britain in that
Thanks guys. Always good to learn something. That was just why I joined this forum.
I hope that someone will also comment on my second question, i.e. are both words used in both countries?
I know we use both "posh " and "swank" here is the US. And I can easily hear "posh" and "swank" coming out of the mouths of my British cousins. But let’s let Garzo or someone from there comment on that to be 100% certain.
(I could almost swear that these are both borrow words from British English, circa WWII. So certain that I have heard them in British movies and such!)
Curiously, both words seem to have first appeared (with their current meaning) at around the same time, early 20th century. So they probably came into use in both countries almost simultaneously. To me, they’re both slightly British-sounding, though.
swank
1809, ‘to strut’ (swanky, n., "attractive young fellow" is recorded from 1508.) perhaps related to M.H.G. swanken "to sway, totter," and O.H.G. swingan "to swing." Said to have been a Midlands and southwestern England dialectal word. The noun meaning "ostentatious behavior" is recorded from 1854; adj. sense of "stylish, classy, posh" is from 1913. Swanky is attested from 1842.
We use the word here in the UK and to be honest I always thought it wasn’t used in America much the same as the word it rhymes with and just the loss of the initial letter! ;D
I guess you are talking about "wank" which I put here without any shame because it is very uncommonly used and only in imitation of British speakers, and usually in the form "wanker."
It has no emotive content to us in the States.
This has nothing to do with the word swank in American English, be assured.
disagree, ‘wanker’ is common here, it’s pretty literal as jerk-off is over there. I think we watch the same stuff and are speaking the same language. ‘wank’ to me is not all that Brit, does ‘jerk’ sound american?
To me, jerk does indeed sound american. It seems to me that in american films, my source of hearing american, one often hears the word "jerk", but in british it would sound a bit strange to me. No, they use "wanker" stressing the "w" as they do with the "b" in "you bastard".
Of course, I have learned this from speech around me. I :-[ have :-[ never :-[ been :-[ addressed :-[ with :-[ any :-[ of :-[ these :-[ words. (Including posh and swank )
Jerk sounds american to me too. But I’m probably not the best person here to discuss the usage of ‘wanker’. It’s heard on PBS but also in most Irish bars, along with other less friendly expressions. And people tend to pick up what they hear in bars, without consciously imitating anyone. And no, it’s unrelated to ‘shag’ which I never hear used (except in that really annoying voice). Did people really ever use that word? ‘cept when referring to bad carpet, of course.
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