Used to describe the typical burbury clad, fashion obsessed idiotic teenage under-class in England, usually the South-East.
A writer in the Independent thought it derived from the name of the town of Chatham in Kent, where the term is best known and probably originated, others have reported it as Cheltenham. But it seems that the word is from a much older underclass, the gypsies, many of whom have lived in that area for generations. Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. We know it was being used as a term of address to an adult man a little later in the century, but it hasn’t often been recorded in print since and its derivative chav is quite new to most people.
Other terms for the class also have Romany connections; another is charver, Romany for prostitute. Yet another is the deeply insulting pikey
, presumably from the Kentish dialect term for gypsy that was borrowed from turnpike, so a person who travels the roads.
Note - a female Chav is often called a Chavette.
"I was walking down Romford High Street and I was surrounded by Chav scum. This is why I hate that place on a Friday night."