What’s the timeline for “Cheltenham Average” by the way, do you know? When I was at school in Staffordshire in the early eighties “chav” was a local term synonymous with “mate” as in “bocca chav” was a friend you went smoking (bocca being cigarette for some reason) with, “aright chav” was “alright mate”.
Tim adds: I was working in Cheltenham in the 80s and it seemed well established then.
Ludingtonian
A fun read, Tim. Good on her for her efforts.
Mr. Quinion, however, begs to differ on the origins of “chav”. 🙂
What’s the timeline for “Cheltenham Average” by the way, do you know? When I was at school in Staffordshire in the early eighties “chav” was a local term synonymous with “mate” as in “bocca chav” was a friend you went smoking (bocca being cigarette for some reason) with, “aright chav” was “alright mate”.
Tim adds: I was working in Cheltenham in the 80s and it seemed well established then.
A fun read, Tim. Good on her for her efforts.
Mr. Quinion, however, begs to differ on the origins of “chav”. 🙂
Tim, that’s a cod etymology for ‘chav’. It’s almost certainly derived from Roma.