ChatterBank1 min ago
Chav
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Michael Quinion on his very interesting website worldwidewords.org says:
"The term that has become especially widely known in recent weeks, at least in southern England, is the one borrowed for the name of the Web site, 'chav'. A writer in the Independent thought it derived from the name of the town of Chatham in Kent, where the term is best known and probably originated. But it seems that the word is from a much older underclass, the gypsies, many of whom have lived in that area for generations. Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. We know it was being used as a term of address to an adult man a little later in the century, but it hasn�t often been recorded in print since and its derivative chav is quite new to most people."
I personally have nearly always called them "pikeys" or "townies", but even those terms refer to two different types of people. It's a complicated SE London thing! Lately people have started calling them "chavs" around here, but that's probably more likely to be through the growing popularity of the "Chav Scum" website (www.chavscum.co.uk).