It’s a [relatively recent addition to mainstream American English](https://symbolgenie.com/origin-of-the-word-janky/) and probably won’t be understood by a large portion of the population.
Temu is the most recent in a long line of cheap junk retailers. Temu exists expressly to move junk that doesn’t sell to poor people, because some money is better than no money for Chinese sellers.
My brother convinced me to give Temu a try and I thought it was a scam site at first. That's how sketchy it looked.
Got my stuff 2 weeks later in a wrapped up ball, and it was probably the worst quality shit I've ever spent $30 on in my life.
I don't always think of the word shit as meaning something bad. Sometimes it just is a substitute for the word "stuff". For example, "I bought some new shit to decorate my room."
Butbifnits high quality you would tell me about your italian leather sofa, or new cedar post bedframe.
The fact that youngot some new shit indicates its not very high quality
Junk, crap, cheap, tacky.
We definitely know the concept. There is a meme of "[X] is the Wish version of [Y]" and Chinese goods have a reputation for low quality.
Chintz is a real style. It refers to a very feminine style with lots of flounces and flowers. Think Victorian homes. It’s funny how we came to associate the word with cheap when it was more the style of an upper middle class home at one point.
To be fair, white bread was also supposed to be for a higher standard of living than the average household, and now it's often considered to be for poor people.
Chintzy is my favorite. I had to explain to it a roommate once after the neighbor told my mom the fencing she'd gotten was chintzy and made a big stink about the price.
Though jank doesn't really refer to something being tacky like a cheap nic-nac/souvenir would be, it's more that something is of poor construction/unreliable.
Something is janky if it's poorly constructed but still works. Junk is inherently worthless.
In trading card games, players use "jank decks" from cards they had lying around, not from carefully considered pieces.
I’ve heard a lot of people refer to those products as “made in China” as a sort of short hand for “this is shit and will fall apart” even if it was made elsewhere, which is really the closest I can think of
Specifically for metal tools, especially ones that round or crack based on their composition or forging.
Also the US has big race issues, and this term calls out a specific country, and by extension, ethnicity. Consider your audience.
edit: Y'all. I agree—China makes and exports a lot of shit products. I sometimes call it *Chinesium* too, but I generally think twice before saying it around a Chinese person I don't know well. That's all.
It would be better if it were China-ium, but that's hard to say. Still, I don't think of it as having anything to do with ethnicity. It's not like I think that Chinese people can only make trash; It's just that a significant aspect of China's foreign trade is based on making cheap junk.
Fair, and I agree 100%. It's totally right to dunk on their (often) shitty providers. I was only cautioning to be easy on any Chinese individuals who are not clearly part of that system.
Tire place wanted over $250 for all new bolts for my tires or I could buy same amount online for $25 (from China). That is too huge of a gap & how can they justify that price of $250? Not to mention- where were the one that cost $250 made? China probably
*Tat* in the US definitely means *tattoo(s).*
"Products or souvenirs" make me think *tchotchkes* (chotch-keys), but there may be a better word for a specific context.
*Chintz/chintzy* as mentioned here might fit. ~~Pretty sure it has some racial origins you might want to be aware of.~~edit: It does have interesting cultural origins, but not what I was thinking of. See below!
I got curious about chintzy based on your comment, and it's not racial at all. It apparently [comes from a type of cheap fabric](https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/chintzy#:~:text=Chintzy%20comes%20from%20the%20cotton,Definitions%20of%20chintzy) named Chintz, the name of which [comes from a Hindi word meaning 'speckled'](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/chintz-explained#:~:text=Why%20is%20it%20called%20chintz,to%20represent%20a%20broader%20range.)
I'd go with the Yiddish word, "Dreck." Like many Yiddish insults, it is originally a German word meaning both "dirt" and "manure." It's definition specifically includes merchandise that is shoddy.
Another word is "shlock," which is also Yiddish, although spelled "shlak." In Yiddish it means junk. It also comes from German, "Schlacke," which means the dregs or trash/refuse.
Do you have any information about how these two words came to be used to refer unfavorably to creative output more than any physical object? I'm definitely familiar with their uses you've mentioned, but I feel like I most often hear "dreck" for bad writing and "schlock" for cheesy music and lowbrow movies.
Personally, I would guess it has something to do with the influence of Jewish immigrants on movies and television. I realize that this is a charge levied by antisemitic people, but it has a basis in reality. I've posted about this in depth but basically, in Europe Jews were not really integrated into the community until well into the 19th century and the rise of mercantilism. In the Middle Ages and later, Jews were generally not permitted to own land, so they couldn't be farmers except in communities made solely of Jews (the shtetl).
Jews were tinkers and travelers. They would go from community to community, farm to farm, repairing pots and pans and selling metal implements. Because they traveled and most farmers did not, they often carried news and stories. They spoke many languages so that they could communicate with many people. And they were often hired to carry money from one kingdom to another, which is where they also got the reputation of being international bankers. (Also, Christians were not permitted to charge interest when loaning money, so most people didn't make loans. [Muslims still have this prohibition, and sharia banking relies on something other than interest to make loaning money a profitable business.])
Anyway, when Jews immigrated to the United States, they found that there was a huge demand for this type of entertainment, the combination of jokes and stories and songs and dancing. They adapted to modern times and train travel, and vaudeville was born. There were still often prohibitions about Jews purchasing land, so farming communities were still mostly Christian, and Christians had a culture that said you stayed on the farm, you grew up and married someone from a nearby farm, and you started your own farm. It was not considered seamless for Christians, especially young girls, to perform on stage, or to travel away from their family as was required of performers like this.
So when Hollywood started, and you could perfect a performance, record it on film, and distribute it, and go home and sleep in your own bed at night, the Jews in vaudeville were all for it. And not just the performers, but the writers and the producers, who knew how to look at a script and determine whether it would appeal to the public or not, and the costumers and the set builders and everyone else behind the scenes were also Jewish.
So their language migrated into Hollywood. Schmuck, putz, maven, glitch (properly glitsh), klutz, shtick, shmooze, spiel.
So although the words aren't confined to film and television, where non-Jews would have heard them most often is in people talking about Hollywood.
I don’t think of “tchotchkes” as having the “low-quality” connotation that OP is asking about. It means an object that’s frivolous or useless (so souvenirs would be a good example), but it doesn't inherently mean they’re cheap or bad. Like, you can have expensive, high-quality tchotchkes.
I think a better answer for OP would simply be “junk.”
I associate 'schlock' more with artistic products, more specifically movies, even more specifically a certain type of cheaply made horror and exploitation films from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Think Russ Meyer produced and directed films, but there are a bunch of other American and foreign examples, too.
I've been called out on that by many European acquaintances xD I'll just be dropping a decent amount of yiddish slang casually, and then they'll ask me what any of that meant.
Specific to New York City would be a reference to Canal Street, located in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan and famous for vendors selling cheap knock off and imitation products of luxury brands and bootleg DVDs. (Think fake Dolce & Gabana handbags and DVD cases with covers printed from a Google image search)
"Where'd you get that? Canal Street?"
Also yes, in American English a tat (as a noun) means a tattoo. Or as a verb, i.e. "I'm going to get tatted up" (have tattoo work performed) Tattoos are also referred to as ink, to be inked up or compliment someone on their ink.
Mickey Mouse
Mass produced, low quality, and usually low taste as well.
"If you need a nice present for your boss's retirement, stay away from the mickey mouse stores."
It could also describe a poorly organized or mis-managed group or business. Synonyms could be "fly-by-night" or "third rate."
"I'll never ship an important package with that mickey mouse courier again."
For those mentioning Chinese products being crap, if you’re old enough, you might remember that it used to be cheap Japanese crap. Then came the 70s and their cars outshone the US manufacturers.
>Kitsch (/kɪtʃ/ KITCH; loanword from German)[a][1] is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal taste.
That's not quite what OP is looking for
I had to think about it for a while. We have terms like tacky and chintzy, but those are adjectives.
Junk, crap, trash, garbage, shit. That's about it. It might be regional as well, but I've never heard anything else like "tat". To be fair, the British have a lot more time at English than we do, so your profanity and your euphemisms are second-to-none.
First time I read the Profanisaurus, I about pissed myself. And my co-workers were wondering why I was stifling a massive gut laugh the entire day.
There are many options in use in the U.S. "cheap, junk, trash," are common. "Kitsch" a German load word is often used, but it is usually (but not always) applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal taste.
Some of the other more common words will equate poor quality objects or bad quality products or souvenirs with scatological epithets, such as "crap," or "shit."
POS = piece of shit
Or just calling it shit. “Hey bro don’t buy this from Temu it’s shit.”
Also, “crap” can be swapped for “shit” in cases where better manners are needed.
Recently I hear people just using "Wish" as adjective for that. Like if you wanted to talk about cheap shoes that looked like expensive ones you might call them wish Jordans or some such.
With tools, parts and appliances and stuff I know folks that'll use "chinesium". Like "Get MOPAR you don't want the chinesium repros"
Knock off, bargain bin, dollar store, shit tier, garbage tier, lots of options depending on age and region.
Other people have layed out what we normally use but it is worth noting that I *have* seen tat used that way in the US (i think for a thrift store but it was years ago) though it seems really rare
In the context of rock climbing we use the word tat in a similar way to refer to old, poor quality anchor materials. There are places where the primary anchors are loops of cord or webbing around trees or chunks of rock, and they get worn out and replaced over time. Ideally people would remove the old stuff when they replace it, but often it gets left behind and just accumulates into a mess of tat. We refer to these as tat anchors.
Here's an example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/ut57r3/the_wrong_rappel_anchor_the_petit_grepon_rmnp/
Tat isn't short for tattoo in this instance. It's most likely short for tatty.
tat·ty /ˈtadē/ *adjective* INFORMAL
1. worn and [shabby](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=bc7a7e98e94968ce&sxsrf=ADLYWIKfGrpUNtO1FBOChUQD2hvK6evZmA:1719697093771&q=shabby&si=ACC90nwdkA2npcVVmNPViiSe8FMKJMh1Z39CVT-_1du3luLb-KekVVNuLVVCLiLLMN7AHft9FAl_Lm38qHY0n_DdC8UhD6ZHLg%3D%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwji3ZTz4oGHAxU_E0QIHQqmBOEQyecJegQILxAP); in poor condition. "The room was furnished in slightly tatty upholstered furniture"
2. of poor quality. "His gap-toothed smile and tatty haircut"
If it’s a product that’s obviously an inferior imitation of a name-brand product, we call it the “Great Value [product name]”. So for example, the most popular brand of tissues is Kleenex, so much that Kleenex is often used as the generic word for tissue. If you give me an off-brand tissue that tears as soon as I try and wipe my nose with it, I’d say you gave me a Great Value tissue. Note that calling it “Great Value” isn’t being ironic, but rather referencing Walmart’s in-store generic brand which is often lower quality (and cheaper).
Tchochkes is definitely the closest, it is usually something useless like a souvenir magnet no one needed so doesn’t have to be cheap just unnecessary and of no added value to your home.
Fugazi (Fu gaze ee)
It has more than one meaning tho. It can mean fake, cheap, crap or just generally fucked up
"This whole situation is fugazi"
"Don't buy shit from Wish, it's all fugazi"
"No, that street seller didn't steal that Rolex, he's selling it for cheap because it's fugazi"
I'm guessing "tat" is just short for "tatty", which means the same thing in the US as it does in England. It's not in common use though. In the US, I'd probably expect cheap, chintzy, janky, schlock, wish.com, tacky, etc. Or just trash or garbage as an adjective.
And yes, "tat" in the US would more commonly be short for tattoo.
'junk' maybe
“Janky” is another one I commonly use.
Or even Jank
I like to add an extra syllable in there so it’s “jankety”
Jankskankety
It’s a [relatively recent addition to mainstream American English](https://symbolgenie.com/origin-of-the-word-janky/) and probably won’t be understood by a large portion of the population.
What a terrible website
The entire article reads like a ChatGPT response.
It's absolutely AI-generated, saying the same thing over and over just slightly differently. That's their "tell."
Context is everything. *Junk* can mean something very different.
This is another time we would use the word shit. “Why did you buy that shit from Temu”
Temu should be the new word for shit.
Don't give me that temu!
I've gotta take a Temu! Man it smells like Temu in here!
Temu head!
And before that Wish!
Is Temu the Wish version of Wish?
Temu is the most recent in a long line of cheap junk retailers. Temu exists expressly to move junk that doesn’t sell to poor people, because some money is better than no money for Chinese sellers.
And before that, Mickey Mouse! From cheap branded crap in the 70s. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/02/magazine/on-language-mickey-mousing.html
Please don't insult shit like that. At least shit has a purpose.
My brother convinced me to give Temu a try and I thought it was a scam site at first. That's how sketchy it looked. Got my stuff 2 weeks later in a wrapped up ball, and it was probably the worst quality shit I've ever spent $30 on in my life.
Now see, I would say crap. "Stop buying crap from Temu!"
I don't always think of the word shit as meaning something bad. Sometimes it just is a substitute for the word "stuff". For example, "I bought some new shit to decorate my room."
Yeah, it’s definitely context and tone dependent
Butbifnits high quality you would tell me about your italian leather sofa, or new cedar post bedframe. The fact that youngot some new shit indicates its not very high quality
Yeah the words "shit" and "fuck" have such a wide variety of uses in conversation at this point. Tone and context makes all the difference
Trash/garbage/junk/crap/shit
Crap
I say specifically cheap Chinese crap if it's something of poor construction, especially electronics
This bench is made of Chinesium
r/chinesium
Smells like plastic and cheap labor.
Junk, crap, cheap, tacky. We definitely know the concept. There is a meme of "[X] is the Wish version of [Y]" and Chinese goods have a reputation for low quality.
Temu is the Wish version of Wish
Elon Musk is the Wish version of Tony Stark.
Chintzy, perhaps.
+1 for chintzy
yeah my dad always uses "chintzy"
Yeah. Chintzy sounds old fashioned to me, and I'm old. I guess I would probably say cheesy.
Chintz is a real style. It refers to a very feminine style with lots of flounces and flowers. Think Victorian homes. It’s funny how we came to associate the word with cheap when it was more the style of an upper middle class home at one point.
Chintz is also a textile with a satiny finish. It can be beautiful. But yes, somehow chintzy came to mean cheap.
To be fair, white bread was also supposed to be for a higher standard of living than the average household, and now it's often considered to be for poor people.
Chintzy is definitely the best response.
Words that sound racist but aren't
Chintzy is my favorite. I had to explain to it a roommate once after the neighbor told my mom the fencing she'd gotten was chintzy and made a big stink about the price.
Where are you from, cause Im from Wisconsin, and I’ve never heard of that word in my life.
I'm in northern Illinois, and we say "chintzy" for low quality crap. This might be an age thing, not a location thing.
Definitely an age thing, I'm not too old, but the last time I heard anyone use the word chintzy, I believe I was still in grade school
I’m 45 yrs old and lived in Wisconsin since birth. I have heard that word used plenty of times in my life.
crap
Jank/janky serve that purpose
Though jank doesn't really refer to something being tacky like a cheap nic-nac/souvenir would be, it's more that something is of poor construction/unreliable.
Junk?
Something is janky if it's poorly constructed but still works. Junk is inherently worthless. In trading card games, players use "jank decks" from cards they had lying around, not from carefully considered pieces.
I use jankity.
I’ve heard a lot of people refer to those products as “made in China” as a sort of short hand for “this is shit and will fall apart” even if it was made elsewhere, which is really the closest I can think of
In the IT field it would generally be referred to as “chinesium”
Same with tools and parts. A pure weapons-grade chinesium drill bit set from Harbor Freight, for example.
*for when you really need to drill holes in like 3 boards*
…and only ever expect to drill those three holes.
That was the joke, yes.
When they work better when spun in reverse. True story.
Harbor Freight is a great place to go for single-use tools.
That's 'high-grade Chinesium'.
The finest treasures of the Orient.
20+ Years in IT. First time I'm hearing this phrase.
I've heard "Chinesium."
Specifically for metal tools, especially ones that round or crack based on their composition or forging. Also the US has big race issues, and this term calls out a specific country, and by extension, ethnicity. Consider your audience. edit: Y'all. I agree—China makes and exports a lot of shit products. I sometimes call it *Chinesium* too, but I generally think twice before saying it around a Chinese person I don't know well. That's all.
It would be better if it were China-ium, but that's hard to say. Still, I don't think of it as having anything to do with ethnicity. It's not like I think that Chinese people can only make trash; It's just that a significant aspect of China's foreign trade is based on making cheap junk.
Fair, and I agree 100%. It's totally right to dunk on their (often) shitty providers. I was only cautioning to be easy on any Chinese individuals who are not clearly part of that system.
Maybe the Chinese should make tools out of better quality alloy if they don’t like being mocked.
Tire place wanted over $250 for all new bolts for my tires or I could buy same amount online for $25 (from China). That is too huge of a gap & how can they justify that price of $250? Not to mention- where were the one that cost $250 made? China probably
*Tat* in the US definitely means *tattoo(s).* "Products or souvenirs" make me think *tchotchkes* (chotch-keys), but there may be a better word for a specific context. *Chintz/chintzy* as mentioned here might fit. ~~Pretty sure it has some racial origins you might want to be aware of.~~edit: It does have interesting cultural origins, but not what I was thinking of. See below!
I got curious about chintzy based on your comment, and it's not racial at all. It apparently [comes from a type of cheap fabric](https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/chintzy#:~:text=Chintzy%20comes%20from%20the%20cotton,Definitions%20of%20chintzy) named Chintz, the name of which [comes from a Hindi word meaning 'speckled'](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/chintz-explained#:~:text=Why%20is%20it%20called%20chintz,to%20represent%20a%20broader%20range.)
Crap, junk, or cheap shit.
I'd go with the Yiddish word, "Dreck." Like many Yiddish insults, it is originally a German word meaning both "dirt" and "manure." It's definition specifically includes merchandise that is shoddy. Another word is "shlock," which is also Yiddish, although spelled "shlak." In Yiddish it means junk. It also comes from German, "Schlacke," which means the dregs or trash/refuse.
Do you have any information about how these two words came to be used to refer unfavorably to creative output more than any physical object? I'm definitely familiar with their uses you've mentioned, but I feel like I most often hear "dreck" for bad writing and "schlock" for cheesy music and lowbrow movies.
Personally, I would guess it has something to do with the influence of Jewish immigrants on movies and television. I realize that this is a charge levied by antisemitic people, but it has a basis in reality. I've posted about this in depth but basically, in Europe Jews were not really integrated into the community until well into the 19th century and the rise of mercantilism. In the Middle Ages and later, Jews were generally not permitted to own land, so they couldn't be farmers except in communities made solely of Jews (the shtetl). Jews were tinkers and travelers. They would go from community to community, farm to farm, repairing pots and pans and selling metal implements. Because they traveled and most farmers did not, they often carried news and stories. They spoke many languages so that they could communicate with many people. And they were often hired to carry money from one kingdom to another, which is where they also got the reputation of being international bankers. (Also, Christians were not permitted to charge interest when loaning money, so most people didn't make loans. [Muslims still have this prohibition, and sharia banking relies on something other than interest to make loaning money a profitable business.]) Anyway, when Jews immigrated to the United States, they found that there was a huge demand for this type of entertainment, the combination of jokes and stories and songs and dancing. They adapted to modern times and train travel, and vaudeville was born. There were still often prohibitions about Jews purchasing land, so farming communities were still mostly Christian, and Christians had a culture that said you stayed on the farm, you grew up and married someone from a nearby farm, and you started your own farm. It was not considered seamless for Christians, especially young girls, to perform on stage, or to travel away from their family as was required of performers like this. So when Hollywood started, and you could perfect a performance, record it on film, and distribute it, and go home and sleep in your own bed at night, the Jews in vaudeville were all for it. And not just the performers, but the writers and the producers, who knew how to look at a script and determine whether it would appeal to the public or not, and the costumers and the set builders and everyone else behind the scenes were also Jewish. So their language migrated into Hollywood. Schmuck, putz, maven, glitch (properly glitsh), klutz, shtick, shmooze, spiel. So although the words aren't confined to film and television, where non-Jews would have heard them most often is in people talking about Hollywood.
If it's stuff from temu I call it cheap crap from china lol Tat does usually mean tattoo here
Chintzy
Tchotchkes. The influence of Yiddish on American English
I don’t think of “tchotchkes” as having the “low-quality” connotation that OP is asking about. It means an object that’s frivolous or useless (so souvenirs would be a good example), but it doesn't inherently mean they’re cheap or bad. Like, you can have expensive, high-quality tchotchkes. I think a better answer for OP would simply be “junk.”
Or a small decorative item, a vase or a candy bowl, for example.
True, not necessarily crappy. But much of the time I think they have collectors rather than useful value.
I use tchotchke as a term for any small item of dacor, souvenir or not. Tchotchkes are often cheap but don't have to be.
Knickknacks
Bibs and bobs
Yeah, I wouldn’t consider Tchotchkes to be crappy though. Just small and cluttered.
‘Schlock’ implies cheapness or uselessness more than tchotchke.
I associate 'schlock' more with artistic products, more specifically movies, even more specifically a certain type of cheaply made horror and exploitation films from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Think Russ Meyer produced and directed films, but there are a bunch of other American and foreign examples, too.
"Chazerai" would do it. I think tchotchkes are doodads.
I've been called out on that by many European acquaintances xD I'll just be dropping a decent amount of yiddish slang casually, and then they'll ask me what any of that meant.
I would have gone with dreck.
We usually just say "Crap" or "Junk".
It's not that common, but we do have the word "tatty." I never realized it came from just "tat," though.
I grew up knowing what it meant to call a person "tatty," but can't recall if it was overheard or read.
Janky
Cheapshit, Crapola, Craptastic, Craptacular
Haven’t heard crapola in a looong time. My mom used to say it all the time. I think I’m gonna bring it back.
Trinkets maybe
Crap I think
Trash
Where did you buy/get that pile of crap/shit/junk/garbage?
Crap
Specific to New York City would be a reference to Canal Street, located in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan and famous for vendors selling cheap knock off and imitation products of luxury brands and bootleg DVDs. (Think fake Dolce & Gabana handbags and DVD cases with covers printed from a Google image search) "Where'd you get that? Canal Street?" Also yes, in American English a tat (as a noun) means a tattoo. Or as a verb, i.e. "I'm going to get tatted up" (have tattoo work performed) Tattoos are also referred to as ink, to be inked up or compliment someone on their ink.
Mickey Mouse Mass produced, low quality, and usually low taste as well. "If you need a nice present for your boss's retirement, stay away from the mickey mouse stores." It could also describe a poorly organized or mis-managed group or business. Synonyms could be "fly-by-night" or "third rate." "I'll never ship an important package with that mickey mouse courier again."
"Two-bit" might work, as well.
Crap.
Junk is the closest thing I can think of
I know the saying, "tit for tat" does that count?
It’s short for ‘this for that’ or ‘quid pro quo’
Trinkets and trash
For those mentioning Chinese products being crap, if you’re old enough, you might remember that it used to be cheap Japanese crap. Then came the 70s and their cars outshone the US manufacturers.
We used to call cheap off brand stuff “bobos”. Like if someone was rocking some Velcro Stride Rite sneaks, they had on bobos.
Chintzy
Sketchy as an adjective, shit as a noun
“Junk,” “dreck,” and “trash,” spring to mind. Also, yes, “tat” is slang for tattoo. Odd.
Tacky is a word I'd also use for this.
Something could be expensive and still be tacky
Tacky I’d say I’d more ‘awful taste/lacking in style’
Ghetto
Closest I use is Kitsch.
>Kitsch (/kɪtʃ/ KITCH; loanword from German)[a][1] is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal taste. That's not quite what OP is looking for
I agree. Kitsch has some sort of nostalgia reference
Chintzy or tacky, if you want to be polite. Crap or shit if you don't.
Crap. Maybe Junk in front of your grandmother.
Yes, I believe it is.
Probably just shit or junk but we also say things like the wish version of something which is also like temu
I had to think about it for a while. We have terms like tacky and chintzy, but those are adjectives. Junk, crap, trash, garbage, shit. That's about it. It might be regional as well, but I've never heard anything else like "tat". To be fair, the British have a lot more time at English than we do, so your profanity and your euphemisms are second-to-none. First time I read the Profanisaurus, I about pissed myself. And my co-workers were wondering why I was stifling a massive gut laugh the entire day.
Rinky-dink and Mickey Mouse can both mean cheap, poor quality
"Chinesium" is sometimes used in the car communities to refer to cheap metal used in car parts. Not saying it's a polite term, but it exists.
There are many options in use in the U.S. "cheap, junk, trash," are common. "Kitsch" a German load word is often used, but it is usually (but not always) applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal taste. Some of the other more common words will equate poor quality objects or bad quality products or souvenirs with scatological epithets, such as "crap," or "shit."
Imported
"Cheap crap"?
knick knacks?
Schlock
POS = piece of shit Or just calling it shit. “Hey bro don’t buy this from Temu it’s shit.” Also, “crap” can be swapped for “shit” in cases where better manners are needed.
Crap, junk, bullshit.
Shit, garbage, or trash generally do the job for me lol
Junk, knockoff, novelties are nouns we might use for some cheap low quality item. A novelty store usually is selling those kind of cheap goods.
Wish, temu, trump
Fugazi
We call it cheap crap or janky.
Crap, shit, junk, chinesium
So what’s a tit? Here in America we use the term for a woman’s cheb.
Recently I hear people just using "Wish" as adjective for that. Like if you wanted to talk about cheap shoes that looked like expensive ones you might call them wish Jordans or some such. With tools, parts and appliances and stuff I know folks that'll use "chinesium". Like "Get MOPAR you don't want the chinesium repros" Knock off, bargain bin, dollar store, shit tier, garbage tier, lots of options depending on age and region.
I've heard people use the words chocksky to describe cheaply made items.
Garbage
As Neil Young said, "Piece of Crap!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovum-GjYWKQ
Crap.
Kitsch Edit: I thought this was /r/whatstheword lol
Other people have layed out what we normally use but it is worth noting that I *have* seen tat used that way in the US (i think for a thrift store but it was years ago) though it seems really rare
In the context of rock climbing we use the word tat in a similar way to refer to old, poor quality anchor materials. There are places where the primary anchors are loops of cord or webbing around trees or chunks of rock, and they get worn out and replaced over time. Ideally people would remove the old stuff when they replace it, but often it gets left behind and just accumulates into a mess of tat. We refer to these as tat anchors. Here's an example: https://www.reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/ut57r3/the_wrong_rappel_anchor_the_petit_grepon_rmnp/
No, but we do have: "Junk", "crap" or specifically with respect to tools "chinesium".
Schlock
Tat isn't short for tattoo in this instance. It's most likely short for tatty. tat·ty /ˈtadē/ *adjective* INFORMAL 1. worn and [shabby](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=bc7a7e98e94968ce&sxsrf=ADLYWIKfGrpUNtO1FBOChUQD2hvK6evZmA:1719697093771&q=shabby&si=ACC90nwdkA2npcVVmNPViiSe8FMKJMh1Z39CVT-_1du3luLb-KekVVNuLVVCLiLLMN7AHft9FAl_Lm38qHY0n_DdC8UhD6ZHLg%3D%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwji3ZTz4oGHAxU_E0QIHQqmBOEQyecJegQILxAP); in poor condition. "The room was furnished in slightly tatty upholstered furniture" 2. of poor quality. "His gap-toothed smile and tatty haircut"
Tacky might apply. It would make sense if used in this way. Junk. Maybe tchotchke, though that obviously isn’t English.
Tacky
Midwest Yiddish/Slavic origin - tchotchke. Cheap or free souvenirs/items with a strictly decorative purpose and usually kept for sentimental reasons.
Kitsch
Kitsch is probably the closest, but most ppl would probably say junk/crap
Junk or shit
If it’s a product that’s obviously an inferior imitation of a name-brand product, we call it the “Great Value [product name]”. So for example, the most popular brand of tissues is Kleenex, so much that Kleenex is often used as the generic word for tissue. If you give me an off-brand tissue that tears as soon as I try and wipe my nose with it, I’d say you gave me a Great Value tissue. Note that calling it “Great Value” isn’t being ironic, but rather referencing Walmart’s in-store generic brand which is often lower quality (and cheaper).
“tacky” comes to mind.
Tatty
Bad quality we’d just call cheap
Shitty
Rachet
Crap.
Chochkies.. Not sure about spelling. Choch keys
Jank or janky, perhaps.
I often use the term "Jank" myself. As in Janky or low quality.
Tchochkes is definitely the closest, it is usually something useless like a souvenir magnet no one needed so doesn’t have to be cheap just unnecessary and of no added value to your home.
Common: —Ratchet —Janky —Sketch Less Common: —Duct Tape special —Section 9 Couture —Chanel No. Why 60+ crowd: —Ramshackle
Tchotchke, as brought over by the Jewish. May not be popular, but I love using Yiddish words in my day to day life.
It is. We're boring, we just say cheap and I've never heard slang for it.
schlock
schwag
Chinesium?
Knick nacks. Or tchotchkes, from the Yiddish.
Shoddy. Junk. Crap.
Tacky
"Tat" is slang for tattoo yeah. Whe might have a word like it but it isn't that
Fugazi (Fu gaze ee) It has more than one meaning tho. It can mean fake, cheap, crap or just generally fucked up "This whole situation is fugazi" "Don't buy shit from Wish, it's all fugazi" "No, that street seller didn't steal that Rolex, he's selling it for cheap because it's fugazi"
Cheapy, chintzy, crappy
Dreck. It’s Yiddish, but so what? Cultural appropriation is as American as General Tso’s chicken, chile con carne or Hâagen-Dasz.
Lemon
I'm guessing "tat" is just short for "tatty", which means the same thing in the US as it does in England. It's not in common use though. In the US, I'd probably expect cheap, chintzy, janky, schlock, wish.com, tacky, etc. Or just trash or garbage as an adjective. And yes, "tat" in the US would more commonly be short for tattoo.
Brits have a tenuous grasp on their own language.
Tatty is used in America, but not frequently as The UK, I think https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/tatty
Shit/junk probably
Tatty
chinesium for low quality sweatshop products
Chintzy.