Chav the skum

Chav is a derogatory slang term in popular usage throughout England. It refers to a council house anti-socially violent subculture stereotype of a person who is uneducated, uncultured and prone to antisocial or immoral behavior. The label is typically, though not exclusively, applied to teenagers and young adults who enjoy stabby/shooting white working-class or lower-middle class origin. Chav is used for both sexes, but a male chav is sometimes referred to as a chavster and a female as a chavette. Other synonyms include; 'barry', 'Rick Wing', 'bazzer', 'kev', 'scally', 'shaz', 'sharon', 'townie', and 'trev'. In Scotland a male chav is known as a 'ned' whilst a female chav is known as a 'senga'. The term was first popularised by the Popbitch website and taken up enthusiastically by the tabloid press. It is similar to the United States terms white trash, wigger or nigger, but not the Australian word bogan, which is actually a rough around edges, generally lower middle class white Australian, that is a bit more of a country Australian, drinking lots of beer, driving big Australian cars, there is no similarity to Chavs. Response to the term has ranged from acceptance to criticism that the term is a new manifestation of classism.
Chavs are also very similiar to other antisocial youth subcultures, including charvas and chores.
Origin
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The word chav is commonly thought to be from the mid-19th century Romany word chavi, meaning "delinquent youth"; but some suggest it comes from a nickname used of people from various towns in England, including Chatham and Cheltenham, sometimes in conjunction with the class label Average.
It is sometimes mockingly redefined as one of several backronyms, including "Council Housed And Violent", "Council Housed And Vile","Council House Assault & Violence" and "Council House Associated Vermin" — although there is no etymological basis for these terms. Although British Police forces use C.H.A.V. as a slang term when referring to 'them' on a regular basis.
It is also said that the word was used in Edinburgh, Scotland in the early 1990s, leading to widespread bemusement on the part of Edinburghers at the sudden popularity of the term in South-Eastern England.
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Key concepts
This stereotyped subculture is defined by outsiders. Essentially very few self-identify with these labels and groupings; rather, they are used by those on the outside to categorise those supposedly conforming to the stereotype, which is marked by the similarity of trends in clothing and behaviour.
The essential stereotype is of being loudly lower-class, with 'class' defined by taste rather than income.
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Elements of the stereotype
Typical features of the stereotype include:


An image of the stereotypical chav
• The wearing of particular clothing, such as
o Brand name athletic clothing and shoes (stereotypically, "prison-white" trainers / sneakers / Reebok Classics).
o Fake designer clothing and accessories, in particular the distinctive plaid of Burberry.
o A love of "bling", that is, gaudy gold jewellery (in particular hoop earrings for females and sovereign rings for males).
o Sports caps or hooded tops (often both are worn).
o Sports or jogging trousers.
• For females, thickly applied make-up, the heavy use of fake tan, and the hairstyle known as the "Council House Facelift" in which the (usually badly dyed) hair is pulled back into a tight bun.
• An association with crass, drunken behaviour and minor criminal activities, generally carried out under the influence of alcohol, and often after the pubs have closed.
• An association with housing estates and other low-income neighbourhoods.
• The ownership of a large, dangerous attack dog and a heavily modified car, often of low original specification, in the style seen in the film The Fast and the Furious. If a chav should find himself without a vehicle or dog of this sort, the acquiring of such will likely be a central focus for him.
o As seen in the magazine Max Power, a blend of vehicle customisation and semi-clad glamour models.
o Usually incorporating a high specification music system with amplified bass.
• Enjoyment of mainstream rap music (by males) or R&B (by females), and pop and dance music by both sexes. The rap group Goldie Lookin' Chain have satirised the chav aesthetic.
• The frequent use of mobile phones (regardless of location such as cinemas, restaurants, etc.).
• A penchant for confessional television chat shows such as Trisha.
• A proclivity for under-aged drinking and sex.
The Burberry clothing brand in particular acquired such links with the chav subculture that it ceased production of its branded baseball cap. Given the popularity of this item, a counterfeit version is usually what is being referred to.
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Media characterisation and comment
The character Vicky Pollard as portrayed in the BBC comedy series Little Britain by Matt Lucas is the most iconic chav or Kappa Slappa — from the name of the clothing brand Kappa and the word slapper. The Gallagher family of the Channel 4 series "Shameless" share many Chav characteristics including alcohol abuse, petty criminality, underage sex and maintaining a large family on state benefits. In this case the family is presented in a sympathetic light in an extension of the "Sympathetic Scally" characters found in Brookside and Boys from the Blackstuff. Also, as Sophie Webster once said in 'Coronation Street', "when we grow up, me and Chesney are going to be chavs!"
Julie Burchill writing in The Guardian in 2005 made a defence of Chav girls arguing that reduced social mobility means that an education as the traditional route out of poverty has limited value. Therefore Burchill claims that it was logical that Chavs would aspire to role models such as Jade Goody and Victoria Beckham.
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Derived and similar terms
There are many regional and local synonyms. For example, chav is equivalent to one definition of townie but is more specific in its usage.
Similar terms are scanger (in Ireland, Dublin in particular), spide (Northen Ireland), and ned (Scotland). In South Wales townie and scally are used.
A more comprehensive list of synonyms would include Pikey and Townie, as well as Bam, Bazza, Chaddite, Charver, Chavalier, Chavette, Chavster, Dumbo, Gazza, Hood Rat, Janner, Kev, Knacker, Ned, Ratboy, Rudeboy, Rudie, Scally, Schemie, Scumbag (Dublin, Ireland), Scutter, Shazza, Skanger, Spide, Steek, Stig, Westie (Auckland, New Zealand), Yarco, Telf, and Hatchy.
The act of adding superfluous and cosmetic modifications to something is known as chavving up (or shamming up in Ireland), and is particularly relevant if the modifications actually decrease performance. This has sometimes been used - occasionally derogatively but usually as a joke - of the case modding scene.
Related terms for urban or suburban miscreants can be found in the dictionary entry for "chav". The popularity of these terms has grown since the 1980s, and their usage reflects both serious and light-hearted issues arising from changes in British urban life.
There are a number of collective nouns for a group of chavs, among the most popular being a chavalanche or a chavalcade.
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Celebrity Chavs
Prince Harry has recently been cited, due to his penchant for baseball caps, sportswear, drinking, and drugs, and for his associations with glamour models. However, his aristocratic background would be at odds with the council estate stereotype.
For a certain group of chavs David and Victoria Beckham are particular role models. The footballer Wayne Rooney would fit the stereotype better, due to his use of abusive language and the anti-social behaviour depicted in the tabloid press.
Michael Carroll is widely regarded as being the epitome of chav culture. When the petty criminal and former dustman won the National Lottery Jackpot of over £9 million, he spent a large proportion of his winnings on gold jewellery, alcohol, drugs and cars.
The Reality Television star Jade Goody is widely regarded as a Chav rolemodel having had two highly publicised pregnancies with no obvious income.
Charlotte Church and Colleen McLoughlin are often referred to as "Queen of the Chavs" by tabloid newspapers and gossip magazines for their apparent lack of style, drunken behaviour, choice of laddish rich boyfriends and no appreciation for the value of money.
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See also
• Hooliganism / Yobs
• Charva
• British English
• Lumpenproletariat
• White trash

Picture this a young lad about 12 years of age and 4 ½ feet high baseball cap at ninety degrees in a imitation addidas tracksuit, with trouser legs tucked into his socks (of course, is definitely the height of fashion). This lad is strutting around, fag in one hand jewellery al over the over, outside McDonalds acting as if he is 8 foot tall and built like a rugby player, when some poor unsuspecting adult (about 17/18) walks round the corner wanting to go to mcdonalds for his dinner glances at the young lad, the young lad jumps up in complete disgust and says “Whats your problem? Wanna make sommin of it? Bling Bling” when the adult starts to walk towards the young lad, the young lad pisses himself and runs off to either his pregnant 14-year-old girlfriend or his brother in the army crying his eyes out.

Derived from Chatham in Kent, this term can be applied loosely to every culture with a nasty, thieving element. There are many variants of this creature but all are subject to the following commonalities:

Chavs are completely Amoral, having never been subjected to right and wrong by their inattentive, uncaring and often absent parents.

Chavs are part Magpie, evidentially supported by their love of all things shiny, or as vaccuous, illiterate street-slang would say 'Bling'. They can be seen twokking from the Jewelry counter in Argos/Index.

Whatever their ethnic background, Chavs have a built-in affinity to hip-hop/R&B, even if they are inherently racist (see the Scottish). They see their life as glamorous and cool.

Chavs are for the most part, extremely stupid. However, some of them render a form of low cunning, which can be misinterpreted as intelligence. However this is false. A Chav has no desire to better themself through honest means nor learn anything outside of car modification.

All chavs think that they are nails. Again, this is false. Sitting in a beaten up nova smoking lamberts does not precipitate a healthy body. The irony being that a Chav owns mainly sportswear, yet will ...

Chav - Sub species of human

Commonly thought to be of inferior intellect, the Chavette surprises us with its cunning plan to avoid taking up a professional career and provide itself with free accommodation supplied by tax payers by spawning multi coloured mini chavs at a early stage in life, usually mid teens.
Clearly recognisable by their distinctive tribal Burberry they congregate in town centres and on street corners, Chavs have a reputation of being creative with public property and motor vehicles, building themselves Chaviots out of mechcano sets and strip lighting, and providing us with humorous banta written on toilet walls like ‘Shit’ and ‘Tasha woz ere’ in an attempt to relieve our boredom while urinating.
Their language is a basic form of English thus avoiding any words they cannot spell or pronounce, even to the extent of creating new words only they know the meaning of.
Hunting in large groups Chavs will single out the weakest, smallest prey and attack it without mercy avoiding any personal injury and insuring victory.
Chavs unfortunately don't yet fall into the category of rodent and in effect cannot be bludgeoned to death under the guise of pest control. Darn!-
I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you Chavs for the great contribution you’ve made to this country, you’ve made it what it what it is today – a shit hole.

Chav can be a noun, verb or an adjective. As in “you shitty scum chav”, or “Hey I like the way you have chavved up ya car/wardrobe/lifestyle/language” etc.

The origins of the word itself are unclear and there are a few theories, perhaps all of them correct. Nonetheless, the current criteria for being a chav applies as laid out in this dictionary and no doubt, as culture dumbs-down even more, the definition will need to be updated. Chavs will no doubt eventually, despite their in-bred lack of intelligence, cotton-on to the fact that burberry and it’s current associations foster great hatred and negativity amongst the majority of the population. This factor however, could backfire, as Chavs could consider the perpetuation of hatred and negativity as a great contribution to humanity, even if it is directed towards themselves from others.

The most recent example of a celebrity Chav is Kenzie in Big Brother. (I can’t remember the name of the boy-band he is in – so uncool – but I know it had the word “Crew” or “Squad” whatever, in the name). In fact, Kenzie actually said “no” initially to being in the BB house, but when he thought long and hard about it, decided to say yes as the word “brother” as in, “bruv-va” or “bruv” for short, sounded cool and he thought it would really do wonders for his street-cred. Kenzie is actually white, but to see his clothes and hear him speak, you would think he is black.

Chavism represents a cultural link with the Trailer Park Tra...

Oh the simple Chav, what a constant source of amusement you are!
Chavs are the dregs of human existence. They live merely to piss everyone else off with their love of crap clothing and manky gold jewellery.
They have taken the wearing of tracksuits and baseball caps to a new level of pikieness.
Chav girls (or chavettes) commonly sport the Croydon Facelift (hair pulled back in a bun so tight that it pulls their faces tight) with at least 6 dangly faux-gold earings in each ear. Also often seen pushing a pram round shopping centers while chain-smoking and wearing fake burberry or nasty velour tracksuits. A favourite accessory is a hideous gold articulated clown dangling from a thick gold chain around their pimply acne scarred necks.
Male chavs hang around in gangs spitting alot and trying to start fights with small children or anyone else that they could easily overpower (which really is just small children!). Once they are of driving age they obtain a clapped out old Nova or Metro and then spend a fortune (no one knows where this money comes from, it is one of the many mysteries of the chav) "maxing it up" with big wheels, sound systems and a huge "wanker pipe" exhaust. Chavs can be seen in any copy of Max Power magazine proudly displaying their efforts at automotive design - tossers !!!

Emerging British subculture which is quickly becoming an epidemic. Chavs can be found the length and breadth of the country, hanging around any junk food outlet, off licence or just hanging around the streets, where they pass the time by vandalising property, drinking cheap cider, shouting abuse at passers by and terrorising old people.

Appearance: Chavs have a strict dress code. Designer labels are everything, although knocked off/fake items are almost de-rigeur. Typically, the male chav will wear a Nickelson or Schott hooded top, baggy tracksuit trousers, white designer trainers, and a baseball cap by burberry or Nike. The female chav (chavette) will have peroxide blonde hair scrunched so tight into a pony tail with colourful scrunchies that her forehead stretches. She will wear a dark blue tracksuit with white stripes, an enormous puffa jacket, hoop earrings, and white trainers. Female chavs are forbidden from wearing socks, and all chavs must wear as much fake gold jewellery as they can fit on their bodies. Mobiles are an added status symbol, and when equipped, the chav must shout into it in the most anti-social way possible, using at least one expletive and the word "innit" per second. Every other word in between should be unrecognisable to non-chavs.

Cars: Typically the Vauxhall Nova, but could include Ford Escort/Orion, Vauxhall Astra, and for chavs with "bling", even a totally shagged 3 series BMW. Whatever the type of car, it must have a spoiler shaped plank...

The male of the species, the 'chav', is often to be found lurking in braying packs close to fast food outlets or late night stores. It displays a distinctive livery with which it attempts to attract the female ('chavette') - most commonly, the Burberry-effect baseball cap (placed at a jaunty angle, sometimes partially covering the face - this is known in some cultures as 'snidey'); the 'sports' clothing (this is somewhat confusing as the chav is not renowned for its athletic abilities) and countless items of 'bling' (Chav patois meaning jewellery or other adornments). The origins of said 'bling' are various as the chav typically possesses neither a means of employment or indeed any type of education. Chavettes, meanwhile, tend to have hair in at least two colours, ill-fitting tops and white tracksuit tops (usually Kappa). Note their ornate 'love bites': tribal cicatrices around the neck, usually perpetrated by a near-toothless male known as Kev, Daz, Gaz, Baz, Tez or some other monosyllabic name.

Health and Education

Chavs can often be seen smoking - an activity which causes them to spit and cough, but only in public places (see above). They imbibe alcohol, normally in the form of cheap lager / cider normally obtained illegally. This often gives them the impression that they are 'hard' and they will thus attempt to start fights with anyone/thing smaller than them. However, upon retaliation of their prey they tend to run away.

Chavs are, believe it or not, to be fo...