to eradicate the words 'chavvy' and 'common' from the MN lexicon

[OrmRenewed]

They are lazy words. They mean 'anything that I don't like and am not'. If you dislike something enough to issue a sweeping and insulting comment about it, have the decency to give accurate and precise reasons for it.

I just find the word hatefilled to be honest and as others have said it is a way of putting people in their place.

It was fine to wear burberry et al until the lower classes started to do it and then suddenly it became tainted and dirty.

I remember 'casuals'. DH was one in the early 80s. Pale drainpipe jeans, yellow Pringle jumper, pale blue Fred Perry shirt and loafers. Looked a complete dog's dinner iirc

I grew up in Kent, where we have used chav for years and years. I am now 30 and it was definitely in use through my schooldays. It is not a new word. I always knew it as a Romany term for baby and somehow from there it became a derogatory term for a certain type of person frequently found in Chatham who may or may not have been from a council estate. It was always more directed at people who dressed/acted/spoke in a certain way. Just telling it as it was when I was younger.

I don't really have too much of an opinion on chav, but everything was common according to my mum as a child , and it was quite irritating. I always think it says more about the person who uses the term than who it is aimed at. Yanbu to think common is a lazy way to dismiss something/someone that you don't understand or is not to your taste.

I personally want to know why many attractive mum's are happy to refer to themselves as a yummi mummi but would get very offended at being called a MILF it is basically the same thing is it not.

eh? that's silly

that's like, thought police, like

Kaloki - but it's not just used to refer to youth tribes - it's 'recent' general use is as a derogotory term for poor people on estates that then extended to include rich working class people.

slushy06 - proably because the term MILF comes from porn. Along with GILF

WHY oh why, can't we just all get ALONG?

can i keep 'charva'?

cant stand chav!

its charva!!!!!!!

well up here it is anyway - my cousins down south always used pikey to mean the same thing! ie big gold earrings, too much makeup' dodgy self tan and cheap looking clothes (and really expensive, cheap looking clothes)

offensive i know, i dont use it often, but sometimes its gotta be done!

itsybitsy Used to know which terms was used where, west of London it was Townie. Chav was usually Kent way as PatsyStone said.

Wouldn't use Pikey here as that was something totally different.

get rid of 'common' because its too snobby for words.
"oh, how common" its snobby snob snob.

chav however is a valid descriptive word for people who think tracksuits and rhinestone accents and massive gold earrings and slicked back ponytails are cool. its like calling someone a goth because they wear a lot of black and gothic clothes.
and i know some loaded chavs, so its not describing anyone poorer/'lower class'/living in a council house/on benefits etc etc as some people on here seem to think it means...

How is a good (nicer) way to descibe that style then?
'trendy'? 'wears designer clothes'? not 'hoodie I guess.

What is GILF unfamiliar with that one.

its interesting i think how different parts of country use same words for different meanings, and also how it same word slightly changes. if some one up here said chav rather than charva they would sound really out of touch and just like a daily mail reader

pikey wouldn't mean chav at all here either - its just a racist word.

funnily enough my cousins DP and DN father is from a travelling family and she says stuff like 'oh don't wear that, its dead pikey looking' but obv doesn't mean it in the same context as it would mean around here.

up here townie is used by the villagers around the city centre to describe everyone who lives in town regardless of whether they are 'charv' or not.

Chav where I live means the same as ScreamingEagle's description. "label sports-wear (adidas, nike and lonsdale), burberry print, baseball caps, copious gold jewellry and scraped back ponytail" probably with the addition of de-badged, resprayed fiesta/punto or similar with oversized sports-kit.

It's no different to goth/rocker/hippy etc.

GILF is 'Grandmother'

"Chav where I live means the same as ScreamingEagle's description. "label sports-wear (adidas, nike and lonsdale), burberry print, baseball caps, copious gold jewellry and scraped back ponytail" probably with the addition of de-badged, resprayed fiesta/punto or similar with oversized sports-kit.

It's no different to goth/rocker/hippy etc."

Snap.

I will admit to liking 'chavtastic'. Sometimes it really does summise the situation perfectly.

Example:
Person 1 - OMG! Did you just see that newborn baby boy with a cubic zircona pierced earstud?
Person 2 - Chavtastic, innit!?

There used to be a page on chavs similar to the insta goth kit, can't seem to find it now though. Has been a decade or so since I last saw it.

The best 'adjectivising' of chav I ever read was in conjunction with the opening of Primark on Oxford Street - there was a pic of the doors opening, and people - literally - falling over and trampling each other to get into the store. It was described as a chavalanche.

I shop at Primark, by the way.

"Well what does common mean then mayor? Give me a precise meaningful description that does not display personal prejudice. "

But surely it is meant as a subjective description specific to the person or group who are using it, like most descriptions. It's a value judgment so it's going to be based on personal prejudices otherwise they wouldn't make sense.
The most universal description would probably be along the lines of "lacking in class or taste." and once again these are subjective terms, I never claiimed them to be objective or free from personal bias, in fact I think that's the whole point of them, so to describe them in an objective sense free from any bias is to my mind impossible, in the same way it would be impossible to give a precise meaningful description of the term rude without the context of manners and personal prejudices.

I don't agree I love some chavvy things!fake tan and hoop earrings anyone?

I like hoop earring ..but then I live on a council estate so only to be expected really

YABU. Unless you decide that any form of subjective classification of groups of people is wrong, then why shouldn't 'chav' and 'common' be used?

Social groups have always been classified in one way or another. Think of yuppies, green-welly brigade, hooray-Henries, middle-class Ocado shoppers, Boden mummies, Notting Hill types etc. I don't see you up in arms about those kind of labels.

Chav and common are used in conversation and people will understand what they are in reference to. Generally, IMO, someone who is chavvy lacks taste, class and possibly education. It's not really anything to do with income. Chav tends to describe someone whose pride and joy is an enormous plasma screen television that takes up the entire wall of a room.

Conversely, 'old money' describes families who own an ancient television, an old AGA and have a drawing room.

Yes, these things are subjective labelling but so what?