chav (charv, charva)

n

British

a vulgar person, representative of the working class or underclass. A vogue term and concept from 2004, defined by the Sunday Telegraph as '...the non-respectable working classes: the dole-scroungers, petty criminals, football hoo-ligans and teenage pram-pushers'. The word originates as Romany for 'friend'. The chav's appearance typically incorpo-rates (for both sexes) white trainers, a tracksuit, heavy jewellery (known as Argos bling after the catalogue chain store), baseball caps and often the scraped-back hairstyle dubbed a 'Croy-don facelift' (Croydon being a London suburb considered emblematic of brash unsophistication).

► 'The cultural phenomenon that is "chav" was kicked off by www.chavscum.co.uk, a site billing itself as a humorous guide to Britain's burgeoning peasant under-class. ' (Guardian, 10 March 2004)