this shit annoys me for some reason

i read this story in my paper today...

"The word Chav is almost certainly from the old Romany word for a child, chavi. But it was reborn last year to describe certain natives of Chatham in Kent.

The concept has been popularised by several websites, especially chavscum.co.uk, which bills itself as a guide to "Britain's burgeoning peasant underclass"."


This is a word which was apparantly invented in the south of england last year...but up here in the north we've been using a similar word 'charver' to describe tracksuit wearing wankers for years!! those southern ponces have just adopted our word and made it crappy - chav. that sucks! charver is so much better

but because its a northern word...you'll never see it in the Oxford Dictionary

I dont care for either word, there both fuckin toss!

thats the big question

called townies in stafford

A term once used as a sneering reference to Britain's ill-mannered young underclass is gaining credibility. BEN ENGLISH in London meets the "chav".

WALK into any shopping mall in Britain's Home Counties – the areas surrounding greater London – and you probably will spot one.

Dripping with eight-carat gold jewellery – large ear-hoops and copycat Louis Vuitton handbags for the girls and giant signet rings and chains for the boys, baggy tracksuits, shiny T-shirts, and the ubiquitous Burberry baseball cap – they seem to be multiplying as quickly as Gap stores in UK consumer halls.

They are the chavs, a youth tribe priding itself on housing-estate chic.

Aged anywhere from 10 to 25, they glory in the bling-bling atrocity of fake designer labels, runners and cheap, ostentatious jewellery: Britain's answer to US trailer trash.

Icons of chav include flashy glamour model Jordan and rock star Liam Gallagher. Soccer wunderkind Wayne Rooney and his girlfriend, Coleen McLoughlin, could be considered the Prince and Princess of Chav, while comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G character could be King.

This week, thanks to one of Britain's most esteemed academic institutions, chavdom gained more notoriety.

The Oxford English Dictionary declared "chav" to be the buzzword of 2004, assuming the mantle from 2003's "sexed up" that was immortalised by the Blair Government's infamous weapons-of-mass destruction dossier.

The OED's Susie Dent says chav is only a recent expression but has exploded into British consciousness.

"The word chav was virtually unknown before this year but is now rapidly gaining currency," she says. "It is quite surprising in a way. It is one of quite a few social class labels that have emerged."

Before you see a chav gang, you'll probably hear them.

They have cultivated a language one step removed from English, recognisable only by the steady stream of expletives that punctuate each sentence. Words like blazin' (excellent), coffin dodger (elderly person), gov (killjoy authority figure likely to prevent vandalism), twok (to steal or hotwire a vehicle) and minger (very unattractive woman deemed too ugly for a sexual relationship) articulate the chav worldview.

Believed to have come from the mid-19th century word chavi, meaning child, chav is defined in the OED as "a young person, often without a high level of education, who follows a particular fashion".

Their lexicon and appearance, however, are merely the cosmetics of chavdom. Underlying all that is attitude, with a capital A.

Chavs wear their ignorance, sloth and aura of violence like a badge of honour. They seem either unaware or unconcerned their label is broadly used in eternally class-conscious Britain as a term of derision used to describe any foul-mouthed, illiterate, trashily attired youth.

In the past year, "chavspotting" has become one of the kingdom's fastest growing pastimes among chattering class "sophisticates" who go to malls to snigger at the chav gangs.

Burberry even admitted this week chavs' championing of the blueblood brand had hurt sales. Ms Dent, however, says chavs' status may be changing.

"I think we may find that because a lot of people have been quite outraged by it, it starts to transform itself into something quite positive. Chav fashion may become something quite cool," she said. This was borne out last week by a survey showing a majority of 11 to 14-year-olds aspire to look like chavs.

Yet to others, chavs are neither counter-culture cool nor hapless fun figures. They are a frightening menace.

i think liam was a townie in the early days well sort of with the attitude and that and the early clothes id say hes a a bit of a scally