Derogatory using the term chav?

[Diamond88]

So I've noticed a lot of responses to disliked names will immediately use the put down of 'chav' or 'chavvy'
I find it a very derogatory and those using it using it as a put down.
Are ppl referring to the lowly working class? Or those who don't have as much money?
Why is ok to use this term?
Or can anyone tell me what the term even means if I've got it wrong?

I thought chav stood for 'council house and violent'. Maybe someone was winding me up with that though

As people have said, it comes from an old Romany word - the council house and violent meaning came after chav became more widely used, it was created to match the spelling.

In Newcastle we have charvas/charvs rather than chav!

People have called accents chavvy.
I don’t know what that is, unless it’s classism.

PreseaCombatir
It depends. In well to do areas chavvy accents seems to mean anything other than BBC English because regional accents must be for poor people.

In many other areas where regional accents and dialects are commonly spoken, a chavvy accent usually refers to the way local chavs speak.

But it is about how a group of people speak. It is not about how a whole social class of people speak.

I think people have their own perception of what chavvy is, and they extrapolate that to that’s what ‘everyone’ means.
But some people do use it for an entire class of people.
I just think if you know it has such negative connotations, why continue to use it.
Its just the new way of saying ‘common’ imo,

I disagree that chav or chavvy means working class, or refers to that class.

I'm working class and grew up in a very working class area, and I find it offensive when people (mainly on mn) say that chav is referring to working class people. It isn't. It means loutish, brash, inconsiderate and almost if those that I have (internally) marked down as chavs both had money and were not working class as far as I could see.

And if you ask for opinions on mn, people are going to be blunt! Don't ask if you don't want to know.

Lola - you said it so much better than me!

I agree - I often feel patronised by the middle class do gooders who need to protect us poor working classes from discrimination! Working class people know what chavy means and who it applies to.

Like I said, I called Katy Hopkins a chav on here before, to test the theory it wasn’t referring to the working class, and the responses led me to believe it IS class, and not behaviour related.

PreseaCombatir
Because people use words to communicate meanings. So if someone wanted to refer to people who are chavvy the word chav is the word for those types of people and their actions.

I can recall my nana talking about people being common as muck. Funnily enough nobody is the working class area got offended by it because everyone knew what it meant.

AnneElliott It's amazing how many working class people know exactly what it means and manage not to be offended.

Sometimes I wonder if all the professionally offended types would describe kids wearing knock off shell suits tucked in their socks, massive trainers, girls with blinged out phones, massive hoop earrings, hanging round the shops til 11pm playing music out their phones and being a general antisocial nuisance.

Would they'd just say 'oh no darling that's not chavvy that's just working class culture and it's so important that we respect that culture' in a suitably woke fashion? (and in doing so offend all the working class people who wouldn't be seen dead acting or looking like a chav because it's not our culture)

Meanwhile the working class think the kids are being chavvy scrotes and would be quite open about their feelings.

I think chav does refer to social class.

I think the money is a red herring. It is possible to be very wealthy and working class!

I'm working class myself and I honestly don't think that people with "posh" accents are really ever referred to as chavs even if they display typically chavvish behaviour as another poster described above.

Chav doesn’t mean working class. It refers to a small subset of antisocial, loutish people.

According to my Scottish friend the Scottish equivalent is a ‘Ned’.

I'm working class and grew up in a very working class area, and I find it offensive when people (mainly on mn) say that chav is referring to working class people. It isn't. It means loutish, brash, inconsiderate and almost if those that I have (internally) marked down as chavs both had money and were not working class as far as I could see.

Sorry you made my point for me. Yes, exactly.

God the twists people get themselves into trying to say that chav isn’t class related. A chav always refers to someone you feel is beneath you socially. Funnily enough I’ve never ever heard anyone from the upper classes described as a chav. Why is that?

@FiddleFaddleDingDong , I often talk about "upper class" people being chavs. In fact I'm more likely to do so. But don't let me spoil your party.

Chavvy indicates a set of behaviours and attitudes when they are exhibited by working class people. Some of the same behaviours are frequently shown by other social classes- but they are never called chavvy then. Yobbish maybe?

What I mean is that chav does not mean working class but all chavs are working class.

Bullingdon Club type behaviour is very chavvy- but wouldbnt be called that.

I'm working class myself and I honestly don't think that people with "posh" accents are really ever referred to as chavs even if they display typically chavvish behaviour as another poster described above
Totally agree

Spend some time in parts of Cheshire , you'll see a load of chavs who happen to have a ton of money. Fur coat and no knickers. Tasteless. Flashy. Chavvy. All in a Range Rover Evoque.

I can recall my nana talking about people being common as muck. Funnily enough nobody is the working class area got offended by it because everyone knew what it meant
I’m going to hazard a guess and say it wasn’t meant about the public school children...

I wouldn't say Katy Hopkins is a chav at all (and no I don't have any truck with her). Katie Price is though.

@Diamond88 Someone with millions of pounds but dresses head to toe in Burberry for example could be called chavvy. Or commissions a bright pink Range Rover, wears tons of gold chains and has gold hoops in their ears etc etc. People who wear football tops look chavvy in my opinion; though they could be loaded or broke, it makes no difference

Well you can't buy class.

Of course the nouveau riche are described as chavs. Working class people who now have shitloads of cash and don’t know their place. Disgraceful behaviour!

You can be a rich chav but you can’t be a posh chav. You can be a posh yob though.

I’m going to hazard a guess and say it wasn’t meant about the public school children...
Obviously not. It was for used for those who are chavvy and common, a social group of people.

Not, as seems to be bleated on here as shorthand for working class.

Being working class doesn't make someone a chav, just like being wealthy doesn't make someone a toff.