tchotchkes

[Anne Lambert]

What's this about gee-gaws? I thought it was gew-gaws (gju.g)) (the ) stands for
the /aw/ sound).

Alice Faber wrote:

> >At 4:18 PM -0600 2/28/00, Tom Kysilko wrote:
> >>Andrea wrote:
> >>> For a pejorative Yiddish term for cheap
> >>>trinkets/souvenirs/gee-gaws, I would use "schlock".
> >>
> >>There's also "shmatte".  The word is probably not so well-known as schlock,
> >>but it was put by the writers of M*A*S*H (the TV show) into the mouth of
> >>Hawkeye Pierce in one episode.
> >>
> >Isn't "shmatte" more like 'rags', i.e. for clothes in not particularly mint
> >condition?
>
> Most definitely. A shmatte is a rag, literally or figuratively.
>
> Alice Faber