Timeline for Synonym of "classy" with a negative connotation
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 17, 2021 at 14:29 | comment | added | tea-and-cake | I don't think the folk etymology of chav coming from an acronym is widely-believed, but the word itself is very illustrative of 1990s Britain, and we have lots of similar ones, all derogatory words for working-class people, many of them very regional: ned, schemie, scally etc. They're generally rude (although sometimes proudly used for self-labelling); but they lack the racist subtext that I think you get from ghetto. | |
| Aug 17, 2021 at 14:28 | comment | added | tea-and-cake | Slight difference there -- what Americans call projects, Brits call council estates or housing schemes. A council house is an individual property (possibly a flat/apartment in a block). | |
| May 12, 2017 at 8:21 | vote | accept | Yuri | ||
| Apr 11, 2016 at 17:40 | comment | added | Adam | What you call council houses we call projects. There is definitely a stigma associated with being from the projects, but I am not aware of a word similar to Chav. Maybe the incredible offensive ghetto trash? | |
| Apr 11, 2016 at 17:30 | comment | added | JavaLatte | @Adam, thanks for confirming that. Derogatory terms for 'people not like us' tend to be quite local, as they need to identify specific traits in those people. At the opposite end of the scale, "trailer trash" would not work in the UK because we don't have trailer parks, and I'm guessing that CHAV (Council House and Violent) wouldn't work in the US because you don't have council houses. | |
| Apr 11, 2016 at 15:48 | comment | added | Adam | Just to confirm that even a BBC-watching American like me would be very unlikely to use "posh" and would never use "poncy." The second word, "ladida" isn't used, but ladidadee is used to signify something like indifferent. | |
| Apr 11, 2016 at 6:07 | history | edited | JavaLatte | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 154 characters in body
|
| Apr 11, 2016 at 5:02 | comment | added | JavaLatte | I'm BrE, so i can't report from personal experience. Highfalutin comes to mind: it's definitely AmE in origin. | |
| Apr 10, 2016 at 22:21 | comment | added | Yuri | Great, that's the meaning I'm looking for. These are very helpful words. Do you happen to know American equivalents, too? | |
| Apr 10, 2016 at 20:21 | history | answered | JavaLatte | CC BY-SA 3.0 |