To ask you to define what a Chav is for me

[alowVera]

what makes someone a Chav? How do you know you are not one?

IntheNightKitchen... It's possible to buy Le Crueset in duck-egg bleu?? I wish I'd known that before... :(

It's a word used by snobbish people to describe working-class people with different tastes from their own.

Read this:

www.amazon.co.uk/Chavs-Demonization-Working-Owen-Jones/dp/184467696X

sorry

www.amazon.co.uk/Chavs-Demonization-Working-Owen-Jones/dp/184467696X

our family has been using word chav for years and our meaning is a gypsy it comes from a romany word meaning child or boy cannot remember which but nowdays it could be anyone with bad taste and loads of dosh

ooh, comments about gypsies - the acceptable face of racism. great.

its not racism just answering the ? always called them chavs

Its a pejorative word used to describe someone you feel socially superior to. There is a very old, original Romany word meaning child, but not sure how it became connected to how word is used today.

I think BurningBridges hit the nail on the head. End of thread :)

Chav is an attitude. It's not about money or class.

Totally wrong... Chav was just a greeting we used in the 1960s and 70s. When mates or pals passed in the street, or ganged up to play rolivo 123, "Alright Chav" was the "Hello, how are you" of the day.

It's Charver in the NE and has been around as long as I can remember.
Generally means people who won't work / trackies / go out in pyjamas. When I lived in Liverpool the word was scally.
I always thought chavs were people like Jordan and the Beckhams.

I got 5% must be because I shop in Argos

Chavs, Charvas, Kappa slappas (in the 80s) are (for me) people who haven't worked for a living, nor have they worked for generations, indulge in low level crime, neglect their children in a low level way, e.g. don't read with them, encourage them to aspire to leave the poverty of their parent's lives. They are not working class people who pay taxes, encourage their children to be literate and educated but have unskilled or semi skilled jobs (my parents).

Ha ! 0%.

But I still think it is a horrid, horrid word.
:)

I thought it came from Cheltenham Ladies College and refers to Cheltenham Average ie the local men. But it's become a derogatory word for a working class person.

I came out at 30% chav.

Then again, I have urban teens so did understand the language questions.

Or maybe I am just irredeemably common.

'Chavvie' is a very old word and used to mean children

I think it originated in the East End of London but I'm not 100% sure

5% but damn it! I think I should be forgiven the taxi driver - it was more than 20 years ago for fuck's sake!

Middle class people think it's a horrid word that means working class people. Working class people know it means member of the underclass of non workers

Nooooooo! How can I be 30% chav. I went to public school, have been skiing and never drink alcohol. Although I am rather fond of Argos and KFC

My son was called a chav and shouted abuse at a few weeks ago by adults.

He was standing near to the off licence, drinking a can with his hood up and his baby staffy on a chain.

He was actually waiting for me, I was in the off licence, buying a bottle of flavoured water, ds was drinking a can of pepsi (rank and full of shit but hardly a crime). He had his hood up because he was cold and the baby staffy on a chain is actually a one year old terrier mix who has bitten his leads right through and pulls badly so now has a no-pull harness attached to a chain leash.

It did make for a laugh on the way home though!

Where I come from a chav is someone who wears pajamas as normal day wear. (Im not talking dropping the kids of in the car, Im talking go and do the weekly shop/have a coffee whilst pushing a child also in pajamas eating a pasty and drinking a bottle of coke)
They often congregate near shops asking for ten pence. "Ere, Can you borrow us 10p?" No idea what they would actually do with ten pence since chomps are now 15p.

Chavs round here dont shop in argos, there would be little point everything is behind a screen.

5 percent must have been the Becks.

There were a couple of threads some time ago, ?what makes someone look like a chav? or ?what do chav?s have in their houses?. The lists were amazing. By the time they were finished there was everything from pictures of family on the wall to argos own brand jewellery.

Obviously the obligatory brown leather sofa and laminate flooring was on the list along with the JVC 50? T.V.

I must have chav tendency?s apparently because Barbour jackets were on the list and I own one of those.

Signet but isn't Argos', DWP-style "take a ticket a wait" policy perfectly suited?