Chav

Chav (male) and chavette (female) are mainly negative, unkind slang words used in the United Kingdom for a subcultural stereotype of young underclass white people. Chav: "a young working class person who dresses in casual sports clothing or a baseball cap".^[1][2]

Cartoon version of a chav

They may wear fashion based on American hip-hop such as fake gold jewellery and designer clothing, combined with elements of working class British street fashion. Many are either school age or late teens/early twenties and may come from a family culture of social security claimants ("SS claimants"). The term first appeared in dictionaries in 2005.^[3][4] They tend to listen to R&B, hip hop, UK garage, grime and reggae and drum & bass music.

"Chav" has started to mean a variety of things. Most chavs do not wear Burberry – this happened mostly in the '90s and early '00s. Chavs are stereotypically narrow-minded and more often than not, below average intelligence. Chavs also tend to use slang language to appear "cooler" and more "edgy".

Chavs may be associated with criminality, including: assault, mugging, robbery, burglary and car crime. Anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) were introduced to tackle such persistent offending.

“Chavette” is a term used to describe female chavs.

Pop culture

In 2011, Owen Jones published his first book, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. Jones says in it that 'chav' is a word used to make working-class people seem less human.