yob
a badly behaving young person
TRANSLATION
yob = der Rowdy, der Krawallmacher --- GOOGLE INDEX yob: approximately 7,800,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Police crackdown on YOB behaviour in Doncaster
(BBC News)
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Military units trying to block off the sprawling protest site were attacked by stone-throwing YOBS who brought along petrol bombs and firecrackers.
(The Economist magazine)
(BBC News)
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Military units trying to block off the sprawling protest site were attacked by stone-throwing YOBS who brought along petrol bombs and firecrackers.
(The Economist magazine)
Did you
know?
yob
noun
- a young man who behaves in a very rude, offensive and sometimes violent way
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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Yob is back slang (words spoken as if they were spelled backward) for "boy" and is a chiefly British term for an anti-social person. Although the term is usually reserved for young working-class men, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a German aristocrat and husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, proved that even members of high society can be yobs. The hot-tempered Royal was accused in 2001 of attacking several journalists and urinating in a public pavilion.
The term yob is thought to have originated during the Victorian period in England, a time in which back slang also became popular. A type of pidgin language, back slang was allegedly used by butchers and other market merchants as a means to talk about customers behind their backs. Instead of telling his colleague to "give the old cow some beef," the butcher could say "evig eht dlo woc emos feeb."
Although any rude-acting person can be called a yob, the stereotype is the teenage boy who puts his feet on a seat in a subway and spits on the conductor's shoes as he passes by, or the football rowdy who sets a rubbish bin on fire after his team loses. In other words, the yob is a far cry from the "boy next door."
A modern version of the term yob is the "chav," a derogatory expression that typically targets working- or lower-class British youth. As the BBC points out, there has been much discussion over the origin of the term. The Romany word chavi - meaning child - was recorded in the 19th Century. Others argue it's from "Chatham average," a disparaging reference to the inhabitants of the Kent town.
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SYNONYMS
cad, lout, hooligan, rowdy, thug, troublemaker, punk, delinquent
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Some yobs grow up and eventually become well-behaved ciitizens."
noun
- a young man who behaves in a very rude, offensive and sometimes violent way
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Yob is back slang (words spoken as if they were spelled backward) for "boy" and is a chiefly British term for an anti-social person. Although the term is usually reserved for young working-class men, Prince Ernst August of Hanover, a German aristocrat and husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, proved that even members of high society can be yobs. The hot-tempered Royal was accused in 2001 of attacking several journalists and urinating in a public pavilion.
The term yob is thought to have originated during the Victorian period in England, a time in which back slang also became popular. A type of pidgin language, back slang was allegedly used by butchers and other market merchants as a means to talk about customers behind their backs. Instead of telling his colleague to "give the old cow some beef," the butcher could say "evig eht dlo woc emos feeb."
Although any rude-acting person can be called a yob, the stereotype is the teenage boy who puts his feet on a seat in a subway and spits on the conductor's shoes as he passes by, or the football rowdy who sets a rubbish bin on fire after his team loses. In other words, the yob is a far cry from the "boy next door."
A modern version of the term yob is the "chav," a derogatory expression that typically targets working- or lower-class British youth. As the BBC points out, there has been much discussion over the origin of the term. The Romany word chavi - meaning child - was recorded in the 19th Century. Others argue it's from "Chatham average," a disparaging reference to the inhabitants of the Kent town.
---
SYNONYMS
cad, lout, hooligan, rowdy, thug, troublemaker, punk, delinquent
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Some yobs grow up and eventually become well-behaved ciitizens."
