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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.

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