chainik

FRANKEN: Well, now the senator can only hope that the questions about his Jewish heritage and his reactions to them become nothing more, Wolf, than a tempest in a chainik, which is Yiddish for teapot, which is probably something Senator Allen probably did not know.

CNN Transcript Sep 19, 2006 2006

My mother was familiar with the phrase, as she was with another of Mr. Thomas's favorites, "Chack mir nisht im chainik."

Sharing the Chutzpah Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011

According to the online "Yiddish Dictionary," the phrase is actually "Hal mir nit kayn chainik," which is defined as: "Don't get on my nerves; stop nagging me."

Sharing the Chutzpah Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011

Чайник = "teapot" or slang for "stupid person, dunce"; in Russian programmers 'jargon - see chainik at Jargon Files - it implies "both ignorance and a certain amount of willingness to learn".

Archive 2004-08-01 Ray Girvan 2004

Чайник = "teapot" or slang for "stupid person, dunce"; in Russian programmers 'jargon - see chainik at Jargon Files - it implies "both ignorance and a certain amount of willingness to learn".

Russian tea Ray Girvan 2004

Chainik itself means 'teapot,' but hakn a chainik literally 'to chop a teapot' means 'to talk nonsense.'

languagehat.com: WHY LINGUISTS GET NO RESPECT. 2004

There's another Yiddish expression parallel to the hocking a chainik.

languagehat.com: WHY LINGUISTS GET NO RESPECT. 2004

I know hakn can mean "chop", but the Yiddish speakers I know translate "hok nit oyf a chainik" as "don't bang on a teapot".

languagehat.com: WHY LINGUISTS GET NO RESPECT. 2004

Just because you might appreciate the trivia of it, chainik is one of those Russian loaners that almost made it into UZbek.

languagehat.com: CHAINIK. 2004

But whenever I hear it I think of my Yiddish-speaking relatives talking about hocking a chainik.

languagehat.com: WHY LINGUISTS GET NO RESPECT. 2004