More about Chav

Chav is such an interesting concept (which I posted about before), that I let Language Hat know about the Chav site, and he pointed me to another site that further describes the word:

The Burgeoning Chav Nickname List

Chavvy(s) - alternative
Chavies - alternative spelling
Charver - London
Ned - Scotland
Spide - Ireland
Townie- alternative to Chav
Kevs - in the Midlands (thanks to wertperch)
Shaz - a female Chav (thanks to a scar faery)
Scallies or Scally- Liverpool (been around for a long time)
Ratboy - popularised in Viz comic
Kappa Slapper - Viz comic

(The rest are all nicked from chavscum.co.uk)

Steeks
Bazzas
Yarcos
Skangers
Scutters - erm... Red Dwarf?
Janners
Stigs
Hood Rats
Trevs - East Grinstead (thanks to Helen4Morrissey)
Scranners - Sheffield - (Helen4Morrissey again)

The origin of the word seems to have lots of possible sources. Now that British journalists have just recently discovered the word, all the papers seem to have an opinion as to its origin and are proudly announcing it as the word of the year. Hmm. One dumb hack wrote that it was a contraction of 'Chatham average', Chatham being a town in Kent, but this is certainly wrong. Another dubious source is an acronym derived from 'Council House Violent'. For decades, Chav was a traditional phrase used by Londoners 'she dropped a Chav' was used to mean 'gave birth'. In this context, 'Chavs' are simply 'kids' apparently deriving from 'Chavi' a Romany word meaning 'boy'. So we have an etymological contender that fits the bill...but used by caravan gippos.