shaver

From Middle English schaver; equivalent to shave +‎ -er.

In its meaning of a boy, lad, recorded since 1592, the word shaver has also been postulated to derive from Romani chavo (“young man”), which also gives us the modern slang chav, ultimately derived from Sanskrit छा (chā, “young animal”).

• enPR: shāʹvər
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪvə/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪvɚ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪvə(ɹ)

shaver (plural shavers)

1. One who shaves.
2. A barber, one whose occupation is to shave.
3. A tool or machine for shaving; an electric razor.
4. (slang, obsolete) An extortionate bargainer; a sharper.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jonathan Swift to this entry?)

5. One who fleeces; a pillager; a plunderer.
   • Knolles

     By these shavers the Turks were stripped.

6. (colloquial) A boy; a lad; a little fellow.
   • Charles Dickens

     As I have mentioned at the door to this young shaver, I am on a chase in the name of the king.

• “shaver” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

• Havers, havers