Aimee Laine » Do you know what a tchotchke is? (Pssst …. free bookmarks)

Do you know what a tchotchke is? (Pssst …. free bookmarks)

On March 19, 2012 by Aimee

No, tchotchke doesn’t mean ‘free bookmark’. That’s at the bottom of the post.

The first time I heard the word tchotchke in conversation I thought someone sneezed. The second time I asked them if it was a real word. The third time, I said, how do people come up with these things?

What IS a tchotchke?? Well, here’s what someone wrote on Wikipedia (and since it’s on Wikipedia that means it’s true, right? 😉 ):

Tchotchke (pronounced /ˈtʃɒtʃki/ choch-kee) are small toys, gewgaws, knickknacks, baubles, lagniappes, trinkets, or kitsch. The term has a connotation of worthlessness or disposability, as well as tackiness,[1][2] and has long been used by Jewish-Americans and in the regional speech of New York City.

The word may also refer to swag, in the sense of the logo pens, key rings, and other promotional freebies dispensed at trade shows, conventions, and similar large events. Also, stores that sell cheap souvenirs in tourist areas like Times Square, Venice Beach, and Waikiki Beach in Hawaii are sometimes called “tchotchke shops.”

Leo Rosten, author of The Joys of Yiddish, gives an alternate sense of tchotchke as meaning a desirable young girl, a “pretty young thing.” Less flatteringly, the term could be construed as a more dismissive synonym for “bimbo.” These usages are not common outside of Jewish circles. The term (in the form צאצקע, tzatzke, [ˈtsäts.qʕ], with a tsade instead of teth-shin) is sometimes used in modern Hebrew as a slang word equivalent to slut.

Well … here we are … hundreds of years later (I kid, I kid) and it’s tchotchke release day for Surrender (Book 2 in the Mimics of Rune series)!!