Chainik lang ru , teakettle is a term that implies both ignorance and a certain amount of willingness to learn as well as a propensity to cause disaster , but does not necessarily imply as little experience or short exposure time as newbie and is not as derogatory as luser . Both a novice user and someone using a computer system for a long time without any understanding of the internals can be referred to as chainiks. Term can also apply to novice drivers, with such usage pre dating the usage in computing context. It is a very widespread term in Russian hackish, often used in an English context by Russian speaking hackers especially in Israel e.g. Our new colleague is a complete chainik . FidoNet discussion groups often had a chainik subsection for newbies and old chainiks e.g. SU.CHAINIK, RU.LINUX.CHAINIK . Public projects often have a chainik mailing list to keep the chainiks out the developers and experienced users discussions. Today, the word is slowly slipping into mainstream Russian language Russian due to the Russian translation of the popular ...For Dummies series which uses chainik for dummy . ref JargonFile ref The term is derived from a Russian folk custom to make a gift of a hollow thing a pitted pumpkin , a kettle , or a teapot , for example to unsuccessful matchmaking matchmaker s of an aspiring groom rejected by a bride. The unlucky groom was mockingly called chainik . Over time the term entered other usages for unlucky, inept, or newbie people. ref A Large Dictionary of Russian Nicknames , by Harry Walter and Valery Mokiyenko 2007 ISBN 5373004359, http books.google.com books?id lUEeuWZdUloC&printsec frontcover&source gbs summary r&cad 0 PPA19,M1 p. 19 ref In the modern colloquial Russian chainik may refer to novice car drivers. Rear window stickers with a picture of a kettle chainik mark a novice driver. fact date January 2009 References reflist Category Beginners and newcomers Category Russian words and phrases ru uk ... more details
Chinik may have one of the following meanings. The former name of Golovin, Alaska . An alternate spelling of Chainik . Yiddish slang for head the literal meaning is teakettle . disambig ... more details
Hakn a tshaynik literally to knock a teakettle , meaning to rattle on loudly and insistently, but without any meaning, is one of the most widely used Yiddish idiom atic phrases. ref name wex Born to Kvetch , Michael Wex , St. Martin s Press , New York , 2005, ISBN 0 312 30741 1 ref It is most often used in the negative Imperative mood imperative sense Hak mir nisht ken tshaynik literally Don t knock me a teakettle , in the sense of Stop bothering me . ref name wex Aside from the metaphor of the subject of the epithet making meaningless noise as if he she were banging on a teakettle, the phrase gains from the imagery of the lid of a teakettle full of boiling water moving up and down, banging against the kettle like a jaw in full flap, clanging and banging and signifying nothing ironically, the less the contents, the louder and more annoying the noise. ref name wex The phrase became familiar to many Americans without contact with Yiddish speakers by appearing in two popular Three Stooges short films. In one, Moe announces he is going to the hockshop , and Larry replies While you re there, hock me a tshaynik in the other, Larry, disguised as a Laundry Chinese laundries in North America Chinese laundryman , pretending to speak Chinese language Chinese , utters a stream of Yiddish doubletalk , ending with Hak mir nisht ein tshaynik , and I don t mean efsher maybe ref name wex The phrase has become relatively common in English in half translated forms such as Don t hock my chainik , to the point where shortened versions of the phrase, such as You don t have to hock me about it proliferate on television and the movies, particularly where the speaker is intended to represent a resident of New York City , even if not Jewish. ref name wex Modern Hebrew also contains an idiomatic expression of precisely identical meaning. References Onesource date June 2008 references Category Yiddish words and phrases ... more details
wiktionary The English language English suffix nik is of Slavic languages Slavic origin. It approximately corresponds to the suffix er and nearly always denotes an agent noun that is, it describes a person related to the thing, state, habit, or action described by the word to which the suffix is attached . ref name kabakchi V. V. Kabakchi, Charles Clay Doyle, http links.jstor.org sici?sici 0003 1283 199023 65 3A3 3C275 3AOSBAN 3E2.0.CO 3B2 D Of Sputniks, Beatniks, and Nogoodniks , American Speech , Vol. 65, No. 3 1990 , pp. 275 278 doi 10.2307 455919 ref In the cases where a native English language coinage may occur, the nik word often bears an ironic connotation. History The suffix existed in English in dormant state for a long time, in borrowed terms. An example is raskolnik , recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary as known since 1723. ref name kabakchi There have been two main waves of the introduction of this suffix into English language. The first one is Yinglish words contributed by Yiddish speakers from Eastern Europe . The second surge was observed after the launch of the Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957. In his book The American Language first edition published in 1919 , H.L. Mencken 1880 1956 credits the postwar mania for adding nik to the ends of adjectives to create nouns as beginning, not with beatnik ref Recorded from April 2, 1958 see http www.sfgate.com cgi bin article.cgi?f c a 1997 02 06 MN18715.DTL Caen, Herb. San Francisco Chronicle , April 2, 1958. ref or Sputnik ref Recorded in the OED from October 1957. ref , but earlier in the American comic strip Li l Abner 1934 77 , by Al Capp . Vocabulary Mainstream Words of significant context or usage Artnik , a UK publisher ref http www.artnik.org Artnik ref the word predates its establishment Badnik , Robots created by Doctor Eggman Dr. Ivo Eggman Robotnik . Beatnik Chainik Otkaznik Peaknik Refusenik Sputnik Casual Casual neologism s Alrightnik one who has been successful who has done all right n ... more details