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Wife tells me Chav originates from 'Cheltenham average'.
Disagree: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chav#EtymÂologyPersonal research, but when I was a kid in Surrey 'chavi' or 'chavvy' just meant 'gypsy'; by extension 'to chav' was to steal: "who's chavved my pencil case?" I think that's the link from the Romany term to the modern use, rather than anything to do with Chatham, Cheltenham etc.
Ditto around Berkshire, although it morphed from 'gypsy' into 'stuff tangentially associated with negative gypsy stereotypes'. Plus the Geordie friends I made at uni in Sheffield all used "charv" or "charver" in exactly the same way as southerners use "chav".
h2o
@MetalMelly @pdlouche @TTM
Disagree: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chav#Etymology
Personal research, but when I was a kid in Surrey 'chavi' or 'chavvy' just meant 'gypsy'; by extension 'to chav' was to steal: "who's chavved my pencil case?" I think that's the link from the Romany term to the modern use, rather than anything to do with Chatham, Cheltenham etc.