A tchotchke ( or ) is a small

bric-à-brac Bric-à-brac () or bric-a-brac (from French), first used in the Victorian era, around 1840, refers to lesser objets d'art forming collections of curios. The French phrase dates from the 16th century meaning "at random, any old way". Shops s ...

or miscellaneous item. The word has long been used by

Jewish-Americans American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jews, Jewish, whether by Jewish culture, culture, ethnicity, or Judaism, religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of Am ...

and in the regional speech of New York City and elsewhere. It is borrowed from

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

and is ultimately Slavic in origin. The word may also refer to free promotional items dispensed at trade shows, conventions, and similar commercial events. They can also be sold as cheap

souvenir A souvenir ( French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and trans ...

s in tourist areas, which are sometimes called "tchotchke shops".

Etymology and spelling

The word ''tchotchke'' derives from a Slavic word for "trinket" ( ; , ; ; ; ), adapted to

singular . A wide variety of spellings exist for the English usage of the term, such as ''tchatchke'', ''tshotshke'', ''tshatshke'', ''tchachke'', ''tchotchka'', ''tchatchka'', ''chachke'', ''tsotchke'', ''chotski'', and ''chochke''; the standard Yiddish

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

is ''tsatske'' or ''tshatshke''. In YIVO standard orthography, it is spelled טשאַטשקע. In

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

it is often spelled , , with a

tsade Tsade (also spelled , , , , tzadi, sadhe, tzaddik) is the eighteenth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''ṣādē'' 𐤑, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''ṣādī'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''� ...

instead of

teth Teth, also written as or Tet, is the ninth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ṭēt'' 𐤈, Hebrew, Aramaic ''ṭēṯ'' 𐡈, and Syriac ''ṭēṯ'' ܛ, and Arabic ''ṭāʾ'' . It is also related to the Ancient North ...

- shin, as in Yiddish. A Hebrew variant is צ׳אצ׳קע, using צ (

) with a geresh to represent the sound .

Alternative meanings and context

Depending on the context, the term has a connotation of worthlessness or disposability as well as tackiness. A common confusion is between the terms ''tchotchke'' and ''tsatske'' or rather ''tsatskele'', with the diminutive ending -le. Both terms have the same Slavic root. ''Tchotchke'' usually references trinkets, while ''tsatskele'' is more likely to mean a young girl or woman who uses her charms to reach her goals. Being Yiddish, the meaning can change by the use of gestures and a change in tone, so that ''tsatskele'' can become the favorite child.

Leo Rosten Leo Calvin Rosten (Yiddish: ; April 11, 1908 – February 19, 1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography. Early life Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking famil ...

, author of ''

The Joys of Yiddish ''The Joys of Yiddish'' is a book containing a lexicon of common words and phrases of Yinglish—i.e., words originating in the Yiddish language that had become known to speakers of American English due to the influence of American Ashkenazi Jew ...

'', combines the two main meanings and gives an alternative sense of ''tchotchke'' as meaning a young girl, a "pretty young thing". Less flatteringly, the term could be construed as a more dismissive synonym for "

bimbo ''Bimbo'' is slang for a conventionally attractive, sexualized naive woman. The term was originally used in the United States as early as 1919 for an unintelligent or brutish man. As of the early 21st century, the "stereotypical bimbo" appea ...

", or "

slut ''Slut (archaic: slattern)'' is an English-language term for a person, usually a woman, who is sexually promiscuous or considered to have loose sexual morals. It is predominately used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of disparageme ...

". Illustrated, reprint edition.

References

External links

{{Wiktionary, tchotchke
Tchotchke (n.)
on ''Online Etymology Dictionary''

on ''World Wide Words'' Yiddish words and phrases Slang terms for women Memorabilia

Etymology and spelling

Alternative meanings and context

See also

References

External links