# Any idea what "Chalujnik!" means? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-what-chalujnik-means/764582 "2016-08-31T17:21:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-what-chalujnik-means/764582/1 "2016-08-31T17:21:02Z")
I’m in a community theater production of Young Frankenstein and there’s a line when the Transylvanian villagers serenade the title character: “Welcome to Transylvania We’re very happy that you’re here Welcome to Transylvania We greet you with a might cheer… Chalujnik!” Does anybody know if “Chalujnik” is an actual word, and if so what language it is in? Googling just brings up Young Frankenstein references, but its similarity to “salus” makes me think there might be some kind of relationship to a real word, perhaps with a more common spelling. I know not to look for cultural accuracy in a Mel Brooks farce that has a Romanian inspector counting in German and speaking Yiddish (he mentions “kvelling and kvetching”) but just curious. ---
**Author:** ![gkevindewey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@gkevindewey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkevindewey)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-idea-what-chalujnik-means/764582/2 "2023-08-06T22:11:44Z")
I’m in the same boat, music directing _Young Frankenstein_ for community theatre. I presumed it was Yiddish, but haven’t found it anywhere. The “-nik” at the end made me think of Ukrainian. It turns out “chalujnik” is “prankster” in Ukrainian. I don’t know that that makes a lot of sense in the context of the show, but there you go. Let me know if you ever find anything else.