tchotchke

noun

tchotch·​ke ˈchäch-kə How to pronounce tchotchke (audio)
-kē,
ˈtsäts- How to pronounce tchotchke (audio)
plural tchotchkes
: knickknack, trinket
Carlene's furniture was garish and awful and every shelf or corner held tchotchkes and gewgaws and other tacky trinkets.Ingrid Law
… collecting every sort of art, from Old Masters to precious textiles, from rare books and manuscripts to antique tchotchkes.Diane Wood Middlebrook
Still crowding his apartment and warehouses is an assemblage that includes pre-Columbian and African statuary, Charles Eames chairs, bent-wood furniture, postage stamps, patent models, busts of Roman emperors and, Wilder readily admits, tchotchkes.Susan Reed and Doris Bacon

Did you know?

Just as trinkets can dress up your shelves or coffee table, many words for "miscellaneous objects" or "nondescript junk" decorate our language. Knickknack, doodad, gewgaw, and whatnot are some of the more common ones. While many such words are of unknown origin, we know that tchotchke comes from the Yiddish tshatshke of the same meaning, and ultimately from a now-obsolete Polish word, czaczko. Tchotchke is a pretty popular word these days, but it wasn't commonly used in English until the 1970s.

Examples of tchotchke in a Sentence

shelves cluttered with tchotchkes from a lifetime of vacations
Recent Examples on the Web It’s adorned with shelves to stash away their favorite books at arm’s reach (or knowing kids, storing tiny toys and tchotchkes galore). India Roby, Architectural Digest, 5 Sep. 2024 There’s not a lobster tchotchke or lighthouse watercolor in sight. Lila Battis, Travel + Leisure, 10 Aug. 2024 What makes Longfellow stand out The bar is decorated with old Odd Fellows flags, bookshelves featuring vintage tomes, various tchotchkes and a tea canister MacGyvered into beer taps. Keith Pandolfi, The Enquirer, 29 July 2024 Gift shops hawk tchotchkes of every kind, while a wishing well invites passersby to toss in their coins to the many surfaces, like a game of chance. Rachel Chang, Travel + Leisure, 22 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for tchotchke 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tchotchke.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Yiddish tshatshke trinket, from obsolete Polish czaczko

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tchotchke was in 1971

Podcast

Dictionary Entries Near tchotchke

Cite this Entry

“Tchotchke.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tchotchke. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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