Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an adorable person, esp. a small child.

1947		Courier (Waterloo, IA) 15 Dec. 4: She is always giving me advice and [...] behaving as if her tsatske hasn’t got enough sense to get out of the rain.
1970		S. Ellin Man from Nowhere 94: He looked Elinor over appraisingly [... ] ‘A real tsatskeh,’ he said with approval [OED].

2. any small decorative thing, also attrib.

1971		Miami News (FL) 1 May 8A/2: The walls are lined with a conglomeration of western ‘tstatskes’ — gewgaws like electrified lanterns, antelope horns.
1973		Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 30 Sept. 191/2: Tchatchkas, knick-knacks — whatever you call them [...] can liven a house enormously.
1977		New Yorker 1 Aug. 14: A careful selection of New York’s best tchotchkes. These include thirteen-inch-long matchbooks . . . bronze Empire State Buildings with thermometers in them.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 47: There was now only yet another store pushing chotchkies, the chotchkification of America.
1980		H. Ellison All the Lies in Shatterday (1982) 175: There would be Eusona, dusting Jimmy’s vast, endless hoard of tchotchkes.
1981		Dly News (NY) 22 June M2/1: Prime tenants whose color scheme and tchatchkas you could die for.
1983		Chicago Trib. sect. 14 28 Aug. 182/2: There’s a great Yiddish term, tsatske (pronounced ‘chot-ski’) means lots of little stuff. Tsatskes are fabulous.
1994		Nat. Post (Toronto) Travel 9 Apr. S21/2: Flea-market bonanzas of brass tchatchkas.
1994		News Jrnl (Wilmington, DE) 22 May 37/2: ‘Tsatske, now thaaaat’s it’ said of the Yiddish word for trinket.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 237: Rubber iguanas, broken Batmobiles, miniature Spanish food cans, cheesy tchotchkes of every stripe.
1999		Indep. Rev. 21 Aug. 9: Jacobson fills his work with ‘viral swag’ as Oliver’s big-hearted father is a trader in ‘tsatskes’ (or trivialities).
1999		Atlanta Constitution (GA) 2 Jan. 62/1: See for yourself the frightening effects these so called ‘toys’ have on people caught in the horrors of tchotchke addiction.
2000		Courier-News (Bridgewater, NJ) 25 June 35/4: [advert] Tchatchkas galore.
2005		badgermeetsworld.blogspot.com 3 Dec. [blog] So usually I toss this ancient fake garland thing up on the mantel along with some assorted tchotchkes and the stockings.
2006		Sth Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) 29 Nov. 68/3: [advert] Nice Jewish Girl wishes To Buy Dishes, Tsatskes, Knick-Knacks For a Fair price.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 128: Usually I’d buy him some black Americana tchotchke.
2015		Boston Globe (MA) 20 Aug. A13/1: Perhaps you read about online tchatchka purveyor [...] engineering a massive tax fiddle.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 64: Choice tchotchkes on chairs/tables/wall racks.