Judge Judy Sheindlin tends to sprinkle her statements with words that are obviously Yiddish, like chutzpah (unmitigated gall), kvetch (complain about petty things), and so on. Last week, when hearing a claim about a ceramic lighthouse, she referred to it as a tchotchka. Where does this word come from and what does it specifically mean in Yiddish?
As far as I remember it being used, it’s like saying a household item, particularly one that’s more for a decorative than useful purpose… but I don’t speak Yiddish at all, so it might not be that exact definition.
I have no idea what the word origin is, other than, well, it’s Yiddish, so it’s probably taken from German. But nevertheless, tchotchkes are bric-a-brac, knick-knacks, etc.
]Tchotchke is a Yiddish word meaning, basically, useless thing you have laying around. I’m currently in a ridiculously geeky Tolkein phase, so I will compare it to the Shire-word mathom.
dougie-monty, you must be at least somewhat familiar with the word to get that close to the spelling.
Also, calling something a “tchotchke” is somewhat derogatory.
The closest in English would be knick knack.
Haj
A tchotchke can also be a person, something akin to a trophy wife. I doubt that’s what Judge Judy means, though.
Robin
To Kyla: No, I’m not that familiar–my TV has closed captioning, which I like to see although I can hear. Tchotchke was indeed the spelling given in the captioning…
Dougie Monty said, “Judge Judy Sheindlin tends to sprinkle her statements with words that are obviously Yiddish, like chutzpah (unmitigated gall), kvetch (complain about petty things), and so on. Last week, when hearing a claim about a ceramic lighthouse, she referred to it as a tchotchka. Where does this word come from and what
does it specifically mean in Yiddish?”
Maybe some of the Jewish folks around here can give a definitive answer, but I always thouht “chutzpah” was more like “spunk” than “gall”. I also thought to “kvetch” was not really to complain, but to simply engage in idle chit-chat. Any help out there?;j
I read an article about how yiddish has been dying a slow death and that there is a group of people out there doing their best to revive it. I find it funny and colorful and just the best thing language has to offer. I hope people continue to use it so their kids can pick it up. 
Kvetch does mean complain. Kibitz is idle chit-chat.
Haj
Point - Haj. Thanks.
Nah, chutzpah means something closer to gall. Usually, when you say someone had chutzpah, it’s because you can’t believe that they said/did something! It can be used in a positive way, though, if you are trying to say that you admire their chutzpah.
Kvetch means to bitch and moan. Definitely not idle chit-chat.
Kibitz can mean idle chit-chat, as haj said, but it can also mean to try to get someone to do something a different way. It’s negative. For example, if you’re playing cards, and someone is looking over your shoulder telling you what cards to play, you can tell them to stop kibitzing.
I knew “kibitz” because we always do that when someone tries to play Scrabble. And chutzpah (at least the way I use it) is the complimentary version. Ya got me on Kvetch, though. What are some other greaat Yiddish words or phrases?
Well, there’s schlemeil and schlimazl (as in Laverne and Shirley’s “Schlemeil, schlimazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated.”)
“Schlemeil” is a bungling person, butter-fingers, something like that. A “Schlimazel” is an unlucky person. The traditional explanation involves a waiter dumping food all over a guest. The waiter is a “schlemeil” and the hapless guest would be a “shlimazel.”
The only Yiddish I know is from Lenny Bruce and my friends, so people closer to the language please correct my mistakes.
Umm…what else? “goyim” for non-Jew. Can be considered offensive. Perhaps you remember Weird Al’s “Pretty Fly For a Rabbi?” : “And all the goyim say he’s pretty fly for a rabbi!”
“Verklempt” as in “I’m feel verklempt.” (Overcome with emotion.) Popularized by SNL’s “Coffee Talk” skit of course.
It’s actually “all the shiksas say he’s pretty fly for a rabbi”
Shiksa = female non-jew.
A favorite yiddish phrases from my house (my grandmother and father are native speakers of Yiddish)
Tsirrus = troubles but more like hassles. As in “I was thinking of buying a car but with the way registration costs in the City, the emissions inspections, and the alternate side of the street parking…? Who needs the tsirrus? I’ll just take the subway.”
My bubbe (that’s grandmother, for people taking notes) is also a native speaker of Yiddish and occasionally springs forth with excellent words.
A good one is beshert, which means, basically, “soulmate”. Your other half, in a Hedwig-sort-of-way.
Yiddish has a lot of borrow words from Hebrew, but amusingly, modern Hebrew has incorporated a lot of Yiddish into it as well. Most Israelis are Mizrachi Jews, whose ancestors lived in the Middle East and spoke Arabic or Persian, not Yiddish, but really commonly used Yiddish-in-Hebrew words are chutzpah, which has already been mentioned, and nu, which means “well”. As in, “Nu, where are you going for Shabbos?”
Oh. Shabbos is Shabbat, or Sabbath. The Hebrew letter tav is sometimes pronounced as sav in Yiddish, so t-sounds become s-sounds.
Three hundred years from now, we’ll still be reading scholarly articles about how Yiddish is still a dying language.
And in my family, kvetching IS idle chit-chat. We’ve got whining down to an art form. 
(And, yes, I know full well what shiksa means.)
Robin
It’s good to be a mensch (literally “man,” implication being “a standup guy”), bad to be a nebbish (wimp), schmendrick (jerk), a putz (dork), a nudnik (annoying pest) or a schmuck (sphincter).
It’s my understanding that bashert (b SHARE t) means “meant to be” or predestined/fated. Therefore, any type of event can be bashert, not just a soulmate.
My favorite Yiddish word/phrase has always been boobah meintzah, meaning outlandish story/tall tale – IOW, hogwarsh.
I’m also fond of meshugeneh. ;j
There’s a pretty good glossary of words here.
A small correction: A non-Jew is a goy, not a goyim. Goyim is the plural. Yeah, it’s slightly derogatory.
Also, shiksa does indeed mean a non-Jewish woman, but it’s important to note that this term, too, is derogatory. “Oy, the shiksas he runs around with! Why can’t he find a nice Jewish girl?”
Other useful terms:
gonif = thief. “30 dollars he chaged me! For doing a hem? What a gonif!”
Farbissena = a bitter, nasty person. Like Frau Farbissena in the Austin Powers movies.
Ongepotchket: Overly complicated, showy, confusing, or having too many parts or elements. “So, what did you think of Pauline’s new living room?” “Oy. Too ongepotchket.”
astorian: Putz and schmuck both mean “penis.”