A.Word.A.Day -- tchotchke

A.Word.A.Day

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Jul 5, 2004

This week's theme
Miscellaneous words

This week's words
tchotchke
eidetic
mimesis
bootless
malarkey

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

It's that time of the year again when we feature odds-and-ends. One-of-a-kind words. Words that are unusual, picturesque, whimsical, esoteric, or intriguing. And like all the creatures in this world, this week's words serve a purpose (as shown by their accompanying citations). They make our verbal universe richer and more diverse. So here they are. We've coaxed them out of the dictionary -- it's not often that one finds them in the open -- and we hope you'll welcome them in your diction.

tchotchke

(Also spelled as chotchke, chachka, tsatske)

(CHACH-kuh)

noun: A trinket; knickknack.

From Yiddish tshatshke (trinket), from obsolete Polish czaczko.

"And the entire hotel is festooned with fun, travel-inspired touches ... rooms and suites feature exotic tchotchkes and photographs on loan from the American Himalayan Foundation."
Bill Picture; Carlton Gets Facelift; The Examiner (San Francisco, California); Jun 2, 2004.

"The last thing Go! needs in her overstuffed, clapboard-shingled shack is another tchotchke, gimcrack, or gewgaw, but we'll take any excuse to browse."
Amy Graves; Friday; Boston Globe; May 28, 2004.

See more usage examples of tchotchke in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

X-Bonus

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. -Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)

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