tchotchke

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 16 August 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 16, 2024 is:

tchotchke • \CHAHCH-kuh\ • noun

Tchotchke refers to a small object used for decoration. It's a synonym of knickknack and trinket.

// Their shelves were cluttered with tchotchkes from a lifetime of vacations.

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Examples:

"Dozens of vendors hawking art, food and tourist tchotchkes crowded the bridge’s Manhattan approaches ..." — Evan Simko-Bednarski, The New York Daily News, 3 Jan. 2024

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. We also have gimcrack, bauble, and bibelot. While many such words are of unknown origin, we know that tchotchke comes from the Yiddish word 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for August 16th.
0:11.0	Today's word is Chachka, also pronounced Chachky and spelled T C. H. H. O T C H K E.
0:20.0	Chachky is a noun. It refers to a small object used for decoration. It's a synonym of the words
0:26.1	Nick Nack and Trinket. Here's the word used in a sentence from the New York Daily News.
0:32.1	Dozens of vendors hawking art, food, and tourist Chachkies crowded
0:37.2	the bridge's Manhattan approaches. Just as trinkets can dress up your shelves or coffee table, many words for miscellaneous objects or
0:46.2	nondescript junk decorate our language.
0:49.5	Nick Nack, Doodad, Guga, and whatnot are some of the more common ones. We also have
0:56.5	Jim Crack, Bobble, and Bebolo. While many such words are of unknown
1:01.7	origin we know that Chachky comes from the Yiddish word
1:05.0	Chachky of the same meaning and ultimately from a now obsolete Polish word.
1:10.0	Chachky is a pretty popular word these days but it wasn't commonly used in English
1:15.6	until the 1970s. With your word of the day I'm Peter Sakalowski.
1:19.8	Visit Marion Webster.
1:24.4	Webster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.

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