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.
The pod corn leaves resemble those of the normal maize plant. Pod corn had a ritual significance for some Native American tribes and can therefore be found throughout the American continent. The putative significance of pod corn for the domestication of maize has long been a matter of controversy.