tchotchke

English

Alternative forms

• tsatske, chotchke, chachka, tshatshke, chatchka, chatchke

Etymology

First attested in American English in 1964, from Yiddish טשאַטשקע‎ (tshatshke, “trinket”), from Polish cacko; compare Russian ца́цка (cácka).

Pronunciation

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Noun

tchotchke (plural tchotchkes)

1. (Canada, US) A trinket.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trinket

   • 1998 Apr, Mark Rakatansky, A/Partments, in Assemblage 35, page 58, [1]

     I am a child of modernism – [...] As such I have inherited a distrust of the tchotchke, which I have still – [...]

   • 1999 Aug 8, Jesse McKinley, The Avant-Garde: Follow That Backpack, in The New York Times, 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, Hitchcock's Music, Yale University Press, page 244:

     Once again 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 tchotchke of folding hands—with dread.

2. (Canada, US, dated) An attractive woman or girl.

   Synonym: bimbo

See also

• schwag

Further reading

• “tchotchke”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.