tchotchke
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
First attested in American English in 1964, from Yiddish טשאַטשקע (tshatshke, “trinket”), from Polish cacko; compare Russian ца́цка (cácka).[1]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
tchotchke (plural tchotchkes)
- (Canada, US) A trinket.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trinket
- 1998 Apr, Mark Rakatansky, “A/Partments”, in Assemblage[1], 35, page 58:
- I am a child of modernism – [...] As such I have inherited a distrust of the tchotchke, which I have still – [...]
- 1999 August 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.
- (Canada, US, dated) An attractive woman or girl.
- Synonym: bimbo
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024), “tchotchke”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Further reading edit
- “tchotchke”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.