22sep2009

tchotchke
/CHOCH-kuh\ , noun:
1.A trinket; a knickknack.

Quotes:
The rare tchotchke aside, our antiquing journeys mainly amounted to wishful foraging, in the spirit of a more roomy and prosperous someday we somehow never really articulated.
-- Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Most Wanted
Of course, you also have arcades, like Funland, and your typical tchotchke vendors, like Ryan's Gems and Junk.
-- Jamie Peck, "Rehoboth Beach", Newsday, May 18, 2001
I'm going nuts with my mother's accumulation of tchotchkes -- it's bad enough she never parted with one she got as a gift -- but why did she have to buy more?
-- "Artifacts of Life", Newsday, December 9, 1996


Origin:
Tchotchke is from Yiddish tshatshke, "trinket," ultimately of Slavic origin. It is also spelled tsatske.