Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗noun
Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventoryA smartly dressed person who trades in illicit, black-market or stolen goods, especially during World War II. · A flashy con artist, often homeless, who lives by his wits. · A low and common thief. · A slacker; one who shirks responsibility.
Unknown. Perhaps from spiff, spiffy. Spiv was the nickname of Henry Bagster, a Londoner arrested a number of times in 1904-6 for activities as described below, and may have been the archetype. Also possibly from Romani spiv (“sparrow”), as active and opportunistic.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Derivation mentionspivrom · sparrow
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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