Anyone watching Prescott ? Did you know what CHAV stood for ?

[Lilyloo]

I have used the term and heard it used many times but never knew what it was an acronym for something ?

[twoluvlykids]

ah but check out that girl's comment "Who's Gordon Brown?"

sigh

is there any hope?!?!?

[SKYTVMOSTHAUNTEDADDICT]

DD1 told me a few weeks back what it stood for, before that I wouldn't have had a clue! Have to admit I didn't really believe her until tonight!

[PottyCock]

spill

[RottenOtter]

council house and violent?

[Lilyloo]

DP didn't know either !!

[Flum]

Yeah am sure its council house something...

[Lilyloo]

Rotten Otter full points to you

[TheGashlycrumbTinies]

Go on tell!

[myredcardigan]

So she's middle class is she? 'I'm not working class cause I aint got a job' she says!

Everyone up North are tramps and chavs!
(Then she slags off CB for being snobby, showing no awareness that she's a scouser!)

She doesn't know who the fucking Prime Minister is!


What sort of uneducated, disaffected aggressive teenagers are we sending forth into the world?

[witcheseve]

Really, council house and violent? I didn't know this.

[DippyDora]

Chav means ????????

[Lilyloo]

I was shocked too to find it meant that!!

[catweazle]

I thought it meant Chatham average?

[myredcardigan]

I thought that too,Cat

[ScummyMummy]

She had a lot of personality, that wee girl. Shame that a culture of unemployment and probably poor parenting and definitely the school system seems to have let her down badly. Good example of class being a real issue still. John P is too insecure and self obsessed to really hammer that point home successfully though, unfortunately. He was clearly too overawed to challenge the vile and patronising Lord family. Because it's all about him he's unable to properly counter the "but you're no 2 in the country" with "yes and how many others from my background do you see in positions of power", which is the correct riposte. I didn't like the way he bullied the Henley public school kids either.

[UnquietDad]

Cheltenham average, Chatham average and Council House And Violent are all myths. It comes from the Romany /Roma word "charva".

[Lilyloo]

UQD what is the translation of that ?

[UnquietDad]

Child, isn't it?

[ScareyBitchFeast]

chatham i am sure - according to dictionary

[ScareyBitchFeast]

perhaps from chatham actually

[ScareyBitchFeast]

i have got a new dictionary - and it is the first word i looked up

[ScummyMummy]

Dictionary.com agrees with UQD

[myredcardigan]

UQD, that obviously makes sense and the traveller kids I've taught do use the word a lot...
...But my Dictionary of Britain says Chatham
average too.

[ScummyMummy]

Wiki's take on it

[tuesdayafternoon]

Wiki:

Etymology
There has been much speculation about the origin of the word "chav", with many varying sources ranging from Romani Traveller origins to Police slang terms for types of young criminals. The word "charva" has also been in use in the North East of England since at least the early 1990s.[citation needed] The two words are identical in meaning but it is possible that they may be etymologically distinct. In general the various origins and explanations for the term have been retrofitted at a time when the original meaning has long since been lost.

A mooted etymology for "chav" is that it derives from the Romani word "chavi" or čhavorse (pronounced [cʰaʋo]) meaning boy.[4] Related words derived from the same source include "charva" meaning prostitute (used in north-east England in a similar sense). In modern Spanish "chaval", "chavo" or "chavón" means "lad" (eg: El Chavo, a Mexican television comedy whose principal character is a street orphan).[5] The term "chavvy", for child or young person, is known to have migrated from Romani into the local dialects of Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire in the post-war years, coming into common usage in the late 1940s.[citation needed]

Many folk etymologies have sprung up around the word. These include backronyms such as "Council Housed And Violent" and "Council House Adolescent Vermin".[6] It has also been suggested that pupils at Cheltenham Ladies' College and Cheltenham College used the word to describe the younger men of the town ("Cheltenham Average").[7]