English edit

 
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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

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈtʃɒtʃ.kə/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈtʃɑːtʃ.kə/, /ˈtʃɑːtʃ.ki/
  • (file)

Noun edit

tchotchke (plural tchotchkes)

  1. (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.
  2. (Canada, US, dated) An attractive woman or girl.
    Synonym: bimbo

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024), “tchotchke”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading edit