Chainik (Russian: чайник, "teakettle"). Almost synonymous with muggle. Implies both ignorance and a certain amount of willingness to learn, 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. Very widespread term in Russian hackish, often used in an English context by Russian-speaking hackers esp. in Israel (e.g. "Our new colleague is a complete chainik"). FidoNet discussion groups often had a "chainik" subsection for newbies and, well, old chainiks (eg. su.asm.chainik, ru.linux.chainik, ru.html.chainik). Public projects often have a chainik mailing list to keep the chainiks off the developers' and experienced users' discussions. Today, the word is slowly slipping into mainstream Russian due to the Russian translation of the popular ...For Dummies series, which (correctly) uses "chainik" for "dummy".

Historical note

This word in this meaning has long been in use among tourists in the Soviet Union. Dedicated, old-timer tourists immediately recognized occasional ones by the appearance of a teakettle with a spout and all, attached to a knapsack. Being of convenience for serving tea, a teakettle has a significant drawback from the hygienic point of view: to clean it thoroughly while on the trail is a difficult task. Therefore seasoned tourists used "matryoshka" sets of rounded kettles (cauldron-shaped ones) for all cooking purposes. Tourism was a popular pastime of students. Therefore when the era of personal computers came, the term had quickly found a new life.

Based on the Jargon File (rev.4.4.7), which is in public domain.