tchotchke

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English

WOTD – 30 April 2024

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish טשאַטשקע (tshatshke, “ornament; trinket; toy; (figurative) attractive girl or woman”), from a Slavic language (compare Polish cacko (“toy; knick-knack, trinket; pretty thing”) (from caca (“nice thing”)) and czaczko (“(obsolete) toy; trinket; pretty thing”); Russian ца́цка (cácka, “(informal) knick-knack, trinket; (dated) toy”) (from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; trinket; well-behaved child; nice person; conceited person”)); and Ukrainian ца́цка (cácka, “(dated) toy; ornament, trinket; conceited person; well-dressed person”) (from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; well-behaved child; conceited person; attractive woman”))), probably ultimately imitative of a baby’s utterances.

Pronunciation

Noun

tchotchke (plural tchotchkes) (originally and chiefly Canada, US, informal)

  1. A small ornament of minor value; a knick-knack, a trinket.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trinket
    • 1957 September 18, “You’re often sorry later when you don’t—plan ahead ”, in Citizen-News, Valley edition, volume 53, number 147, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Harlan G. Palmer, →OCLC, page 6C, columns 3–4:
      We're stuck with: 14 Provincial & Modern Kitchen chairs— […] 23 assorted Lamps and miscellaneous "Tchotchkes"! Help us unload.
  • 1974 July 12, Georgia Dullea, “Inflation-weary men turn to discount stores”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-04-06, page 31:
    The idea of a discount operation, of course, is that it shouldn't look like a boutique. Presumably the price tags are decoration enough. "Décor doesn't add to the glamour of a suit," an owner pointed out. "You're not buying the rugs or the lamps or the tsatskes."
  • 1998 April, Mark Rakatansky, “A/Partments”, in Assemblage, number 35, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, paragraph 45, page 58:
    I am a child of modernism – […] As such I have inherited a distrust of the tchotchke, which I have still – even as the house I was raised in of course had its share of (modernist) tchotchkes: the Asian art, the Danish designware, the Indian pottery, the MoMA catalogues.
  • 1999 August 8, Jesse McKinley, “The avant-garde: Follow that backpack”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-09-17, page 5.16:
    With limited cash and a thirst for uncommon sights, backpackers have pushed into challenging territory well before the big-money resorts or tchotchke merchants.
  • 2006, Jack Sullivan, “Psycho”, in Hitchcock’s Music, New Haven, Conn., London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 244:
    The awsome dissonance of Psycho works independently even as it instantly evokes Norman Bates's stabbing knife and Marion Crane's helpless scream. Once again [Alfred] Hitchcock overturned the convention that music must remain subliminally in the background of a film: […] in its quiet moments, it roams grimly wherever it pleases, investing the most banal images—a toy, a car on an empty highway, a suitcase on a bed, a tchotchke of folding hands—with dread.
  • (figurative, dated) Chiefly in Jewish contexts: an attractive girl or woman.
    Synonyms: bimbo; see also Thesaurus:beautiful woman
  • 1970, Stanley Ellin, chapter 19, in The Bind, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC, page 94:
    He looked Elinor over appraisingly as she seated herself on the banquette between him and Jake. "A real tsatskeh," he said with approval.
  • 1978, Leo [Calvin] Rosten, “The Glories of the Press”, in Passions & Prejudices: Or, Some of My Best Friends are People, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Book Company, →ISBN, page 41:
    The Business Section of the admirable New York Times once published advertisements that showed a full-bosomed tchotchke in a very skimpy bra and panties leaning forward invitingly. The caption under this photograph read: / hi—i'm evelyn / and I'm Available / for / Trade Shows / Conventions / Business Meetings

    • Alternative forms

    Translations

    small ornament of minor value — see knick-knack,‎ trinket
    attractive girl or woman — see beauty

    See also

    References

    1. ^ “tchotchke, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “tchotchke, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

    Further reading

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