A shiv, also chiv, schiv, shivvie, or shank, is a handcrafted bladed-weapon resembling a knife that is commonly associated with London. Since blades are highly prohibited in the United Kingdom, the intended mode of concealment is central to a shiv's construction. An especially thin handle, for instance, makes it easier to conceal in a hidden pocket of a coat, or in stacks of objects, such as books, permitted to the London gent; however, this can also render the shiv difficult to grip and wield. Due to the number of knife crimes increasing in the United Kingdom, authorities have taken measures such as body searches in order to prevent knife violence amongst civilians, but these measures often fail, since shanks are made by hand and can easily be hidden. Beyond the authorities, it is also desirable to conceal possession of a shiv from members of a rival

street gang A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

. The word is recorded from the 1670s in the spelling ''chive'' as cant for ''knife'', whose pronunciation is reflected in the spelling ''shiv'' recorded in underworld slang from 1915 and possibly used since the 1890s or earlier. The cant word probably came from the

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

word ''chiv'' for "blade" (compare Romani ''chivomengro'' "knife"). The derived verb shiv means "to stab someone", and a shivver is an archaic or rarely used term for a criminal who attacks victims with a knife.

Usage

The word is slang for an improvised knife. The word generally applies to both stabbing and edged weapons. A shiv can be anything from a glass shard with fabric wrapped around one end to form a handle, to a razor blade stuck in the end of a toothbrush, to a simple toothbrush handle, filed into a sharp point. In the 1950s, British criminal Billy Hill described his use of the shiv: In the Federal Bureau of Prisons, weapons, sharpened instruments, and knives are considered contraband and their possession is punishable as a highest severity-level prohibited act. Since the industrial revolution, violent street gangs have been using improvised knives to commit minor crimes, such as petty theft, and major crimes, such as

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiv (weapon) Knives Prison-related crime Improvised weapons