A wide variety of spellings exist for the English usage of the term, e.g., tshotshke, tshatshke, tchachke, tchotchka, tchatchka, chachke, tsotchke, chotski, or chochke; the standard Yiddish transliteration is tsatske or tshatshke. In Israeli Hebrew it is often spelled ×¦××¦×§×¢, [Ëtsats.ke], with a tsade instead of teth-shin, as in Yiddish.
At first, corn was only a garden curiosity in Europe, but it soon began to be recognized as a valuable food crop. Within a few years, it spread throughout France, Italy, and all of southeastern Europe and northern Africa.
Thus, though corn is not specifically mentioned in descriptions of the 1621 celebration around which Thanksgiving lore is built, it was almost certainly a part of the feast. Maize (corn) is native to the Americas, but it has become a staple around the world, as shown in this map of the corn crop in 2000. The map was made with statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, as well as local and national governments.