Antedating? of tchotchke and bummerkeh (ca. 1912)

[Sam Clements]

How do you know if you've antedated Yiddish words?  The spelling variations play havoc.  

Tsatske or Tchotchke, meaning a knickknack to most these days, but always retains the old-time meaning of a 'chick' or babe, a loose woman, perhaps merely a pretty one  to me. It is cited in OED from 1964.  HDAS probably will have much earlier.

>From a piece of sheet music titled "At The Yiddisher Ball"  from ca. 1912, lyrics by Joe McCarthy, music by Harry Piani.  From the Indiana U. Cunningham Library Kirk Collection of sheet music.

"In our neighborhood we have, what you call, Once a year a sociable ball, What a time, there's everything you wish, Every one is dressed from soup to fish; You take Rifky, she looks pretty nifty, Don't you mind to bring the lunch, it only costs you fifty; There'll be wine and every thing that's fine At the yiddish sociable ball."

(Chorus) "At the ball, at the ball, at the yiddisher ball, There'll be only class, or there'll be nothing at all, And when that orchestra plays Yiddish Kazotskys and Bombershays;  At the ball, at the ball, at the yiddisher ball.  We'll make monkey-dood-les 'round the hall, Out upon the floor I'll be Jakey on the spot, Doing the kosher turkey trot, At that first class yiddisher sociable, (Remember, fifty cents admits the ladies and the gents) At that first class yiddisher sociable ball. 

So, I'm assuming "Kazotskys" is 'tchotchkes' and "Bombershays" is related to 'bummerkeh', which according to Leo Rosten means a woman who bums around, a loose woman.  

The two words mean the same in the song, the way I read it.

"Bombershays' may be something else entirely.  

Sam Clements