Etymology
The term has its origins in the Romani word chavi, meaning "child" (or "chavo", meaning "boy", or "chavvy", meaning "youth"). The derivative chavette has been used to refer to females. The adjectives "chavish" and "chavtastic" have been used in relation to items designed for or suitable for use by chavs.
The word in its current pejorative usage is recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary as first published in a Usenet forum in 1998 and first use in a newspaper in 2002.
Read more about this topic: Chav
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)