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What's a Spiv?

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    What's a Spiv?

    I keep reading about this word in the current coverage of the credit crunch. I had thought a Spiv was someone in WWII who sold black market oranges and stockings (kinky sex?) but obviously there's a deeper meaning?
    Speaking gibberish on internet talkboards since last Michaelmas. Plus here on Twitter

    #2
    Thank you

    I now have this picture of Dodgy in my mind. wrinkled pin stripe suit, spats, yellow tie, twirly moustache, cigar, Gold tooth and a warm clammy handshake
    Confusion is a natural state of being

    Comment


      #3
      Didn't bother looking it up until now - we'd probably be talking about the third definition here.

      Comment


        #4
        OED:-
        A man who lives by his wits and has no regular employment; one engaging in petty blackmarket dealings and freq. characterized by flashy dress.

        Comment


          #5
          Spivs are very easy to recognise.

          Keep these photos handy to help you recognise a Spiv when you see one.

          Spiv 1

          Spiv 2

          HTH
          Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

          C.S. Lewis

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by thunderlizard View Post
            OED:-
            A man who lives by his wits and has no regular employment; one engaging in petty blackmarket dealings and freq. characterized by flashy dress.
            Isn't that a definition of an IT contractor?
            Last edited by MarillionFan; 21 September 2008, 19:35.
            What happens in General, stays in General.
            You know what they say about assumptions!

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by MarillionFan View Post
              Isn't that a definition of an IT contractor?
              What!
              a flashily dressed contractor
              Confusion is a natural state of being

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Board Game Geek View Post
                Spivs are very easy to recognise.

                Keep these photos handy to help you recognise a Spiv when you see one.

                Spiv 1

                Spiv 2

                HTH
                But these are both 'recruitment consultants', surely?

                You've come right out the other side of the forest of irony and ended up in the desert of wrong.

                Comment


                  #9
                  http://losingit.me.uk/v/sculpture/30..._7403.jpg.html

                  Contractor posing in front of his wardrobe


                  Sorry! (You know who you are )
                  Confusion is a natural state of being

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by bogeyman View Post
                    But these are both 'recruitment consultants', surely?
                    The terms are interchangeable.

                    Nobody mentioned the original Flash Harry in the original St Trinians movies?
                    George Cole also played the ultimate Spiv as Arfur.
                    I am not qualified to give the above advice!

                    The original point and click interface by
                    Smith and Wesson.

                    Step back, have a think and adjust my own own attitude from time to time

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