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.
Corn was first domesticated 9,000 years ago in what is now Mexico. Archaeologists discovered that people have known about popcorn for thousands of years. In Mexico, for example, remnants of popcorn have been found that date to around 3600 BC. Popping of the kernels was achieved by hand on the stovetop through the 19th century.