is chav a new word?

[sudu]

when did the word chav start to be used? i only remember it from about a year or so ago.

[Quizmonster]

Far from it!
Chav is almost certainly from the Romany/Gypsy word �chavo' or �cavo', meaning a �son' or a �boy'. Certainly, as �chavvy', travelling people used it to mean the equivalent of �bloke' or �mate' in the 19th century if not earlier. There is even some suggestion that it derives from the ancient Sanskrit word �sava', meaning �son/boy'.
It implied a fellow traveller, so - if a non-traveller used it - it gave the impression he was looking down on the person so addressed. Nowadays, it seems to refer to anyone, especially a young person, who is considered less intelligent or more obnoxious than the speaker and who tends to exist in a group of people who dress and behave similarly. It's rather like the �Essex girl' and �medallion man' concepts of a few years ago. Basically, it seems to have transformed from �friend' to �non-friend'!

[smudge]

Brilliant answer from Quizzy as usual!

P.S. Be very careful with the ESSEX girl bit though Quizzy! You'll have bernardo after you - especially if you're referring to Dagenham or Romford!

A Borough of London girl doesn't quite sound right does it?!! :o}

[Quizmonster]

Thanks for your kind comment, Smudge.
I was very careful to put 'Essex girl' in inverted commas above, as indeed I have done again here. I did so - not for fear of Bernardo's wrath - but to indicate that the words are not necessarily to be given the strictest or most literal of interpretations. I'm sure Essex is awash with ladies of impeccable dress sense...and morality!

[smudge]

Well that's very kind of you Quizzy.

Yours always,

an Ex-Essex Girl!

[ieatbees]

QM is correct, but there is a more specific explanation of how Chav came into use today.

I believe that Chav came from Cheltenham Ladies College, where the mistress at the start of the new year say "Be careful ladies not to get distracted, we don't want you turning into the average Cheltenham person". There was a sign above the door as the girls graduated a few years later that said "Remember you are not Cheltenham average"

Cheltenham Average then became shortened to Chav, and it has been a common term in the high society of Cheltenham for hundreds of years. (It has always been used as a derogatory term)

I hope that this helps

[Quizmonster]

If you click here Ieatbees, the link will take you to a web-page created by the noted etymologist and lexicographer, Michael Quinion. I'm afraid he rather demolishes the folk-etymology explanation you offer.

[ieatbees]

That was a very interesting page QM, thanks for the information. I will also try to get a photo of the infamous sign, at the ladies college, so that you see where the word derived from in and around Cheltenham.

[Wanyon]

The whole suggestion that Cheltenham Ladies College has ANYTHING even REMOTELY to do with the term 'Chav' becoming a popular term around Cheltenham or anyone else is absolute nonsense of the highest order!
The Quizmonster has it right. The term is derived from Romany/Gypsy origin and the Sanskrit suggestion is very likely too as obviously the Romany/Gypsy community over the generations would have picked these things up and it would have mutated and be absorbed into their own language much like multi-cultural ways have been absorbed into the patchwork-quilt of Gypsy life and ways. Italians also have words that can fit the history of the term. Every country throughout Europe shares and absorbs similar words and terms into their language from their neighbours and it mutates from country to country from generation to generation. You could trace the English language back to a country and in turn that country's language to its neighbour and so on and so forth until you reach a far off country that has zero resemblance to English.
As for the supposed close-connection between Cheltenham Ladies College and the popularizing of the term 'chav', it is pure speculation with zero credibility or fact to back it up. I recall hearing the term since i was young and yet only a few years back hearing some numb-nuts saying chav meant "CHeltenham AVerage"...it is exactly that kind of inbred, dumbed-down street-muppet that shares these nuggest of nonsense with similarly thick friends and perpetuates these myths...and ones that date back only a handful of years at best!
There are various towns out there that claim ownership and origin of the term based on either the name of their town fitting the bill or some Chinese Whisper about someone who once coined it. All urban legend of course...and laughably inept ones at that!

People need to stop dumbing down and being dumbed-down and stop listening to what their "mate said" and actually do their