Tom's Life Bits

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**Dear Word Detective:** //What it the origin of the word "chatchki"?
I suspect it's Yiddish, but I'm not sure. It means something 
like "trinket" or "small decorative item" or even "junk." My 
family in New York uses this word frequently, but recently 
someone asked me about it because they'd never heard it before.// 
-- Cara Anthony, Boston, MA.

The word you're looking for is actually "tchotchke," and while 
your friends may never have heard of the word, I'll bet they own 
a ton of tchotchkies (the plural of tchotchke).

Tchotchke (usually pronounced "CHOCH-kah") is indeed a Yiddish 
word, meaning "trinket or toy," and comes from a Slavic word 
meaning "to play pranks." Tchotchke (also spelled "tsatske") can 
sometimes mean a small gift or reward, an inconsequential person 
or even a pretty girl.

"Tchotchke" didn't appear in English literature until 1964, but 
we can assume that it was in common oral use long before that 
date. While the original meaning of "tchotchke" was "trinket," 
today the word is usually applied to small decorative or 
whimsical items that usually are meant to be displayed on a 
shelf or mantle.

Tchotchkies seem to be a hazard of modern life, and it's 
impossible to avoid acquiring them. A few years ago I was living 
in a tiny apartment in New York City, the sort of place where 
you have to stand outside the kitchen to open the refrigerator. 
When the finally time came to move out, I began to clear off my 
bookshelves and discovered that I had somehow managed to acquire 
four mechanical cows, a small rubber walrus, a rubber cat, 
several decorative carved African letter openers, two plastic 
lobsters, a half-dozen dysfunctional clocks, an extensive 
collection of gargoyle figurines, and a small plastic toaster 
which, when wound, marches across your desk waving slices of 
toast and rolling its eyes. Tell me about tchotchkies. I don't 
remember actually buying any of those things, by the way.

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