Glossary entry

anglais term or phrase:

chav

français translation:

racaille/chav (variété britannique de racaille)

Added to glossary by Francoise St Marc
May 12, 2005 11:30
19 yrs ago
1 viewer *
anglais term

chav

anglais vers français Autre Journalisme
From a newspaper article about youth culture.
Obviously I know that a chav is a "small vauxhall,fiat or citroen driving, baseball cap and tracksuit wearing ill-educated moron" :-)
But is there a French equivalent?

Discussion

Conor McAuley May 12, 2005:
CMJ_Trans (X) May 12, 2005:
the only thing I can think of is "les neuf cubes" (residents of d�partement 93" also known as "neuf trois"
CMJ_Trans (X) May 12, 2005:
there was a whole question on this a while ago but I can't just find it
Non-ProZ.com May 12, 2005:
I must apologise for my definition but it just makes me laugh when newspapers try to make yob culture into a positive thing :-)

Proposed translations

+1
42 minutes
Selected

racaille

le plus proche je crois - à cause de l'âge, de la tenue, des goûts musicaux, de l'instinct grégaire et des petits larçins - mais je ne pense pas qu'il y ait d'équivalent exact...

deux definitions de chav
1. chav
Picture this a young lad about 12 years of age and 4 ½ feet high baseball cap at ninety degrees in a imitation addidas tracksuit, with trouser legs tucked into his socks (of course, is definitely the height of fashion). This lad is strutting around, fag in one hand jewellery al over the over, outside McDonalds acting as if he is 8 foot tall and built like a rugby player, when some poor unsuspecting adult (about 17/18) walks round the corner wanting to go to mcdonalds for his dinner glances at the young lad, the young lad jumps up in complete disgust and says “Whats your problem? Wanna make sommin of it? Bling Bling” when the adult starts to walk towards the young lad, the young lad pisses himself and runs off to either his pregnant 14-year-old girlfriend or his brother in the army crying his eyes out.

2. chav
Derived from Chatham in Kent, this term can be applied loosely to every culture with a nasty, thieving element. There are many variants of this creature but all are subject to the following commonalities:

Chavs are completely Amoral, having never been subjected to right and wrong by their inattentive, uncaring and often absent parents.

Chavs are part Magpie, evidentially supported by their love of all things shiny, or as vaccuous, illiterate street-slang would say 'Bling'. They can be seen twokking from the Jewelry counter in Argos/Index.

Whatever their ethnic background, Chavs have a built-in affinity to hip-hop/R&B, even if they are inherently racist (see the Scottish). They see their life as glamorous and cool.

Chavs are for the most part, extremely stupid. However, some of them render a form of low cunning, which can be misinterpreted as intelligence. However this is false. A Chav has no desire to better themself through honest means nor learn anything outside of car modification.

All chavs think that they are nails. Again, this is false. Sitting in a beaten up nova smoking lamberts does not precipitate a healthy body. The irony being that a Chav owns mainly sportswear, yet will only break a sweat if running from the police.

Chavs are incredibly fertile beasts, and are highly successful breeders. Where they come unstuck is having to look after the offspring which their 13 yr old drunken fumble produces. More often that not the child will crow to be a Chav, having received no more guidance on life than the parent.

Chavs have a fond love for cars, as well as a Vin Diesel fixation. Rather than buy a nice car to start with, a chav will spend all their dole and tax-free labouring cash on upgrading a 10 year old car with 200,000 miles on the clock. The end product will invariably be a luminous monstrosity with at least one serious collision to it's name.

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Note added at 49 mins (2005-05-12 12:19:38 GMT)
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une troisième définition:
3. Chav
Chav - Sub species of human

Commonly thought to be of inferior intellect, the Chavette surprises us with its cunning plan to avoid taking up a professional career and provide itself with free accommodation supplied by tax payers by spawning multi coloured mini chavs at a early stage in life, usually mid teens.
Clearly recognisable by their distinctive tribal Burberry they congregate in town centres and on street corners, Chavs have a reputation of being creative with public property and motor vehicles, building themselves Chaviots out of mechcano sets and strip lighting, and providing us with humorous banta written on toilet walls like ‘Shit’ and ‘Tasha woz ere’ in an attempt to relieve our boredom while urinating.
Their language is a basic form of English thus avoiding any words they cannot spell or pronounce, even to the extent of creating new words only they know the meaning of.
Hunting in large groups Chavs will single out the weakest, smallest prey and attack it without mercy avoiding any personal injury and insuring victory.
Chavs unfortunately don\'t yet fall into the category of rodent and in effect cannot be bludgeoned to death under the guise of pest control. Darn!-
I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you Chavs for the great contribution you’ve made to this country, you’ve made it what it what it is today – a shit hole.

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Note added at 1 hr 53 mins (2005-05-12 13:23:14 GMT)
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et voilà pour racaille:
... Dénomination courante des bandes de délinquants de quartier, racaille, «
caillera ». Et certains habitués de ces larcins ont fini par verser ouvertement ...
www.unice.fr/ILF-CNRS/ofcaf/16/M.htm - 516k

RACAILLE : Ou caillera des mauvais quartiers qui a parfois la fâcheuse tendance
à gâcher les raves et emmerder les fêtards. ...
membres.lycos.fr/nyto/nyto/lexi0061.htm - 37k

... les BMW sont des voitures de caillera (racaille pour ceux qui ne parlent pas
verlan) - les merco sont des voitures de truands (mafia italienne, ...
forum.m6.fr/sutra174594.php& sid=a7ca79a72cd7280ea2575f2a0cca327a

... caillera nom féminin. Verlan de racaille. Jeune voyou, loubard : « Des guns,
des keufs, des histoires de caillera \\ mais comment veux-tu faire kiffer ...
cobra.le.cynique.free.fr/dictionnaire/index. php?index=lexique&page=definition&terme=caillera

Il y avait aussi \'loubard\', mais c\'est vraiment très démodé...:))

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Note added at 1 hr 54 mins (2005-05-12 13:24:49 GMT)
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le plus tendance étant \'caillera\'

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Note added at 1 hr 59 mins (2005-05-12 13:29:22 GMT)
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il y a des \'cailleras\' de toutes les races

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Note added at 2 hrs 8 mins (2005-05-12 13:38:44 GMT)
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On pourrait également ne pas traduire et mettre en parenthèse \"une variété britannique de racaille\" ;))
Peer comment(s):

agree writeaway : that's the word I think!
2 minutes
merci :)
neutral Conor McAuley : Partially gets it, but I think that there's no exact equivalent
16 minutes
that's exactly what I wrote....
neutral Sabine Seguin : Peut-être un peu trop fort.
52 minutes
peut-être, mais chad est vraiment très péjoratif aussi..
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Just for those definitions!! :-)"
9 minutes

mingati

If I rely on your definition, I think "mingati" could be an equivalent for Belgium at least. It is quite pejorative.

Peer comment(s):

agree writeaway : There's no shortage of these people in Brussels, that's for sure.
5 minutes
Neither in Liège ;-))
disagree alx : n'évoque rien en France, mais bon à savoir!
8 minutes
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36 minutes

as is + piche

dans le sud, pour sensiblement la même chose on dit 'piche' (tuning, etc., mais ...
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40 minutes

bête/imbécile

I certainly don't know what the French equivalent could be, I doubt there is one (yet?) because the word isn't clearly defined and probably never will be. The underlying message of 'chav' makes me think it to be just a new way of saying that someone lacks intelligence.

Perennial French equivalents are undoubtedly:

bête
n. fém. et adj.
1. Sans intelligence. Être bête comme une oie, comme une cruche, comme ses pieds; bête à manger du foin: extrêmement bête. / Pas si bête: difficile à berner. Bête comme chou: très facile. / Subst. Faire la bête: simuler la bêtise.

imbécile
adj. et n.
1. Qui est très peu intelligent, stupide (s’emploie aussi comme injure). Tu n’es qu’un imbécile! /



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+3
17 minutes

beauf

Is the closest I can think of.

Best maybe to leave it in italics and gloss - it is very culture-specific.

BTW, to get a full discussion of the "chav" phenomenon, try the Guardian Talk pages (there is a search function).



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Note added at 37 mins (2005-05-12 12:07:23 GMT)
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A similar urban tribe does exist in French cités, so perhaps a more specific term does exist.

As Estelle says, maybe leave it in italics and gloss with \"small vauxhall,fiat or citroen driving, baseball cap and tracksuit wearing ill-educated moron\" in French.


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Note added at 57 mins (2005-05-12 12:27:20 GMT)
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A vote for untranslatable:

http://www.proz.com/kudoz/855971

\"I don\'t think this term is quite translatable, as the chav phenomenon is very specifically British; there is a strong class connotation involved.\"

I would simply say that there is no exact French equivalent. I think a chav is generally a white person. In France people do dress in the chav \"style\" in the cités but are generally of immigrant origin and don\'t behave in the chav way.
Peer comment(s):

agree Joëlle Bouille : Fonctionne aussi bien pour la Belgique que pour la France
3 minutes
Thanks Joelle
agree writeaway : http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm / I still agree with beauf, but I think racaille captures the yucky and yob element really well.
12 minutes
Nice one writeaway - Michael Q knows his stuff!
agree Estelle Demontrond-Box : but should keep it as such and explain in a footnote since it is very specific
13 minutes
Aye, thanks Estelle
neutral Francoise St Marc : le problème c'est que beauf ne s'adresse pas à des jeunes..et n'est pas représentatif de la 'youth culture' du tout, au contraire.....
26 minutes
I agree, but it depends how you use it - Mrs Conor uses it in a very wide-ranging way
neutral Marie-Céline GEORG : je crois que racaille se rapproche plus de la description que beauf - dans mes souvenirs, un beauf désignait un "vieux" (40 piges au moins) en marcel et "abdos Kro" qui se la joue avec son volant à peau de lapin et des gri-gris qui pendouillent au rétro
1 heure
Possible, thanks for the input
neutral Sabine Seguin : D'accord avec Marie-Céline. En plus, "beauf" ne rend pas bien le sens de "voyou".
1 heure
Oui, c'est vrai
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2 heures

une caille

c'est l'abbréviation de caillera (racaille en verlan) et c'est aussi une jeune fille de peu de vertu
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-2
17 minutes

châtard(e)

une personne ringarde et vulgaire de style et d'éducation

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Note added at 3 hrs 2 mins (2005-05-12 14:32:39 GMT)
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Je viens du Nord Ouest et je crois que l\'expression est nationale, mais certes très familière en registre, tout comme l\'original.
Peer comment(s):

disagree Joëlle Bouille : n'évoque rien en Belgique, mais bon à savoir!
6 minutes
disagree Francoise St Marc : ni en France...
10 minutes
neutral Marie-Céline GEORG : c'est la première fois que je vois ce mot... jamais entendu dans les divers coins de France que j'ai visités - c'est de quelle région ?
1 heure
née et élevée en France, c'est le nom qu'on donnait aux péquenots descendus en ville, mais ce n'est pas dans les dictionnaires!
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