tchotchke

The story

1. Yiddish · borrowed fromטשאַטשקע“ornament; trinket; toy; (figurative) attractive girl or woman”
2. English todaytchotchke

Borrowed from Yiddish טשאַטשקע (tshatshke, “ornament; trinket; toy; (figurative) attractive girl or woman”), from a Slavic language and probably ultimately imitative of a baby’s utterances. Slavic cognates * Polish cacko (“toy; knick-knack, trinket; pretty thing”), from caca (“nice thing”), and czaczko (“(obsolete) toy; trinket; pretty thing”) * Russian ца́цка (cácka, “(informal) knick-knack, trinket; (dated) toy”), from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; trinket; well-behaved child; nice person; conceited person”) * Ukrainian ца́цка (cácka, “(dated) toy; ornament, trinket; conceited person; well-dressed person”), from ца́ца (cáca, “toy; well-behaved child; conceited person; attractive woman”)

First known use, by meaning

• from 1950s A small ornament of minor value; a knick-knack, a trinket.
• from 1960s An attractive girl or woman.