tchotchke

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English

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WOTD – 30 April 2024

Etymology

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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.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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

  1. A small ornament of minor value; a knick-knack, a trinket. [from 1950s]
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trinket
    • 1957 September 18, “You’re often sorry later when you don’t—plan ahead [Affiliated Home Distributors advertisement]”, 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.
    • [1969 November 10, Earl Wilson, “Names make news items”, in J. Ray Hunt, editor, Philadelphia Daily News, volume XLV, number 190, Philadelphia, Pa.: Triangle Publications, →OCLC, page 45, column 1:
      Barbra Streisand's ambition: to open a knick-knack shop called "Tchotchkes" (Yiddish for "knick-knacks") …]
    • 1974 July 12, Georgia Dullea, “Inflation-weary men turn to discount stores”, in The New York Times‎[1], 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[2], 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.
  2. (figurative, dated) Chiefly in Jewish contexts: an attractive girl or woman. [from 1960s]
    Synonyms: bimbo; see also Thesaurus:beautiful woman
    • [1947 December 15, Sydney J[ustin] Harris, “Strictly Personal: Harris says offspring always children to mom”, in Waterloo Daily Courier, volume 89, number 298, Waterloo, Iowa: W. H. Hartman Company, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:
      My mother is still convinced that her little boy doesn't eat enough (I've gained 15 pounds the last six months), and that he doesn't get enough sleep (I average a good nine hours a night), […] She is always giving me advice, chiding me for the error of my ways, warning me not to drive too fast, and in general behaving as if her tsatske hasn't got enough sense to get in out of the rain.
      Used to refer to a boy; compare Russian ца́ца (cáca) and Ukrainian ца́ца (cáca, “well-behaved child”).]
    • 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

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Translations

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See also

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References

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

Further reading

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