Noun
chav (plural chavs)
- (UK, MLE, Ireland, derogatory, offensive) A working-class youth, especially one associated with aggression, poor education, and a perceived "common" taste in clothing and lifestyle.
- Synonyms: charva, ned, pikey; see also Thesaurus:chav
- Coordinate terms: chavette; spiv, geezer, wide boy
a. 2009, Dizzee Rascal (lyrics and music), “Creeper (Freestyle)”:Lyrical staff / Never could they ever take me for a chav / Scholar in the English, scholar in the Math / Dizzee ain't no riff raff
2011 June 18, “Giving the poor a good kicking”, in The Economist:His book concerns ‘chavs’, a supposed underclass of ill-educated, fast-breeding, violent and amoral poor people currently plaguing Britain.
Translations
relating to a youth from a working class background, aggressive with poor education
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: MK (em1 kei1), MK仔 (em1 kei1 zai2)
- Hokkien: 阿明 (a-bêng) (Singapore)
- Mandarin: 殺馬特/杀马特 (zh) (shāmǎtè) (Mainland), 八加九 (bājiājiǔ) (Taiwan)
- Esperanto: marĝenulo m or c, misgustulo m or c
- Finnish: rakkari (fi)
- French: racaille (fr) f, cacou (fr) m
- German: Asi (de) m, Proll (de) m
- Greek: κάγκουρας (el) m (kágkouras)
- Hebrew: עַרְס (he) m ('ars)
- Italian: tamarro (it) m, zingaro (it) m, coatto (it) m, scugnizzo (it) m
- Japanese: ヤンキー (ja) (yankii), チンピラ (ja) (chinpira)
- Polish: dresiarz (pl) m, dres (pl) m, dresiara (pl) f
- Portuguese: maloqueiro m (Brazil), trombadinha (pt) (Brazil)
- Romanian: bombardier (ro) n, cocalar n
- Russian: го́пник (ru) m (gópnik)
- Serbo-Croatian: dizelaš (sh) m
- Spanish: flaite m (slang, Chile), cani (es) m, choni (es) f (Spain), poligonero m, poligonera f (Spain)
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References
- "Good news for chavs: they may be cool people soon" by Robin Young, The Times, 2004-10-19, accessed 2005-04-15
- World Wide Words: chav, by Michael Quinion, accessed 2005-04-15
- Posting by "Quizmonster" in The Answer Bank, 2005-02-22, accessed 2005-04-15
- Posting by "Dick Jones" in FrizzyLogic, 2004-03-19, accessed 2005-04-15
- "The Chavs are Coming", The Irish Times 2005-03-23, accessed 2005-04-15
- Bragg, M. 'The Adventure of English', London, Hodder and Stoughton, 2003: 26.