Chavs, Townies, Kevs, Charvers, Steeks, Spides, Bazzas, Yarcos ...

Question

... Ratboys, Kappa Slappers, Skangers, Janners, Stigs, Scallies, Sengas, Pikeys, Gallus Weegies and a Generous Assortment of Neds.

The following websites define and illustrate various terms current in modern British riffraffology:
http://www.chavscum.co.uk/culture.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/no31online/spidegenerator.htm

http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/nedagotchi/glaNedagotchi.html

http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/people/glaPeople.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/tv/chewinthefat/neds/neducation.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/tv/chewinthefat/personality test/index.sht ml
(Can't get that one to work but perhaps someone else can.)

'Chav', by the way, comes from the Sanskrit 'sava' via Polari and Romany.

Mickwick

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]... Ratboys, Kappa Slappers, Skangers, Janners, Stigs, Scallies, Sengas, Pikeys, Gallus Weegies and a Generous Assortment of Neds. 'Chav', by the way, comes from the Sanskrit 'sava' via Polari and Romany.[/nq]
Hmm. Charvs (or as they're called in Newcastle, "Charvers") seem to be all the rage at the moment. Dot Wordsworth's "Mind Your Language" column in this week's Spectator magazine is also about charvers. For what it's worth, she gives the same etymology.
It's something we discuss regularly at my office. We assumed, though, that the word "charver" was unique to the North East of England. Seems we were wrong.
Thanks for the web links. They're quite enlightening.

RobertE

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]'Chav', by the way, comes from the Sanskrit 'sava' via Polari and Romany.[/nq]
[nq:1]Hmm. Charvs (or as they're called in Newcastle, "Charvers") seem to be all the rage at the moment. Dot Wordsworth's "Mind Your Language" column in this week's Spectator magazine is also about charvers. For what it's worth, she gives the same etymology.[/nq]
That's where I got it from, and that's what prompted me to visit those websites.
[nq:1]It's something we discuss regularly at my office.[/nq]
Interesting office!
[nq:1]We assumed, though, that the word "charver" was unique to the North East of England. Seems we were wrong.[/nq]
Not necessarily. The phenomenon is widespread but most of the words used to describe it are probably fairly local. (Else why are there so many of them?) 'Spide', for example, seems to be restricted to Northern Ireland, and 'senga' to Glasgow.
'Ned' might be the exception but I don't know enough about it to say for sure.
The original Ratboy was from your part of the world, I think. Does 'ratboy' have a wider usage now? I hadn't encountered it since the original news stories, but that doesn't mean a great deal.
[nq:1]Thanks for the web links. They're quite enlightening.[/nq]
Did you manage to keep your nedagotchi alive?

Mickwick

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]The original Ratboy was from your part of the world, I think. Does 'ratboy' have a wider usage now? I hadn't encountered it since the original news stories, but that doesn't mean a great deal.[/nq]
I think Viz has done a lot to popularise 'Ratboy' beyond the north east, as it has for a number of other previously-regional issues (like Ace lager, for one!)

Dave Kenworthy

Changes aren't permanent - but change is!

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]It's something we discuss regularly at my office.[/nq]
[nq:1]Interesting office![/nq]
Yes, well, I'm not native to the North East but most of my colleagues are. We have a lot of conversations that begin with me saying, "Why is it that...?" or "Have you noticed that...?" They (my colleagues, that is) then go on to enlighten me in the ways of Geordiedom. Sort of practical anthropology, I guess :-)
[nq:2]We assumed, though, that the word "charver" was unique to the North East of England. Seems we were wrong.[/nq]
[nq:1]Not necessarily. The phenomenon is widespread but most of the words used to describe it are probably fairly local.[/nq]
I wonder if charvers (or whatever the local variant might be) are regarded elsewhere as they are in Newcastle. Here they are more or less universally despised or ridiculed by those who are not themselves charvers.

BTW, pace Dot Wordsworth, I heard an interesting folk etymology of the word "charver" a few weeks ago. One of my colleagues said he had heard that it was a corruption of "chauffeur". In the early 1990s there was a large number of car thefts by joyriders. Those who stole the cars were chauffeurs because they were driving other people's cars. Quite witty, as folk etymologies go.

RobertE

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[nq:1]I wonder if charvers (or whatever the local variant might be) are regarded elsewhere as they are in Newcastle. Here they are more or less universally despised or ridiculed by those who are not themselves charvers.[/nq]
Beware! One of those sites said that seven out of eight neds don't realise that they are neds.
[nq:1]BTW, pace Dot Wordsworth, I heard an interesting folk etymology of the word "charver" a few weeks ago. One of ... Those who stole the cars were chauffeurs because they were driving other people's cars. Quite witty, as folk etymologies go.[/nq]
Or true, even. Why not?
This is interesting:
http://www.odps.org/slangc.html
Another trait common to the charva is a loud, slightly sarcastic, nasal laugh and slow 'can't really be bothered to talk' speech. Typical slang words that Charvas use are 'belta', 'mint' and 'waxa' all meaning good or great, with the prefix of 'pure' or 'total' this would mean really good. The word charva has been in common use in the North East since the mid-nineties.

And:
My daughter was bought an Adidas bag which she refused to use for fear of being called a "Chav".
(There's now a paperback version of The Dictionary of Playground Slang. £5.59 at Amazon.)

Mickwick

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[nq:1]That's where I got it from, and that's what prompted me to visit those websites.[/nq]
In that same article, Dot said that she asked Veronica (who's her daugher, btw) the difference between a chav and a pikey. Veronica is quoted as saying that a pikey is like a "pram-face, really rubbish, eats economy burgers and oven chips and watches televsion all day" (sorry, I'm quoting from memory, but that's the jist of it).
Question: what the heck is a "pram-face"? Can anyone define it for me?

Thanks.
RobertE

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]That's where I got it from, and that's what prompted me to visit those websites.[/nq]
[nq:1]In that same article, Dot said that she asked Veronica (who's her daugher, btw) the difference between a chav and ... memory, but that's the jist of it). Question: what the heck is a "pram-face"? Can anyone define it for me?[/nq]
A woman with the kind of face you'd expect to see on someone pushing a pram - by inference an unmarried mother on a council estate - hard-faced and old before her time. The popular music combo 'Girls Aloud' are reckoned to be archetypal pram-faces. As are / were Atomic Kitten. I first encountered the term on the Popbitch website. They will even provide Pram-face T-shirts to the cognoscenti:
http://www.popbitch.com/tshirts/

John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Question: what the heck is a "pram-face"? Can anyone define it for me?[/nq]
[nq:1]A woman with the kind of face you'd expect to see on someone pushing a pram - by inference an ... Kitten. I first encountered the term on the Popbitch website. They will even provide Pram-face T-shirts to the cognoscenti: http://www.popbitch.com/tshirts/[/nq]
See the mothers in the park
Ugly creatures, chiefly
Someone must have loved them once
In the dark, and briefly.
Anon.

Don Aitken
Mail to the addresses given in the headers is no longer being read. To mail me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com".

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[nq:2]Janner Portsmouth.[/nq]
[nq:1]Is this somewhat garbled Royal Naval slang? In the RN, Janners are from Plymouth and other parts of SW England.[/nq]
My mistake. I remembered it wrong. Plymouth, not Portsmouth. (And I used to live in Saltash, so I should know the difference.)

Mickwick

Chavs, Townies, Kevs, Charvers, Steeks, Spides, Bazzas, Yarcos ...

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