NeantHumain wrote:
For the bloody 'Mer'cans here, can anyone say what chavs and townies are?
There is an urban working class section of the population in many of our Cities who are designated (by some), as 'Chavs'. The term is believed to derive from the expression 'Chatham Average'; Chatham being a small town in Kent in South East England.
They are associated with certain dress style - in this case Leisure/Sports Wear, with brands such as Reebok, Nike, Adidas and son on featuring prominently. They are also associated with excessive (though often cheap) gold jewellery and a certain mock-Tartan called Burberry. All manner of negative stereotypes are applied to them and I suspect that the term arose among some sections of the middle classes, in order to distance themselves from the poorer elements in society.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chav
http://www.chavscum.co.uk
I think it is basically Class snobbery under a different guise.