Tricky Words in this week's OVI

Recipe /resi-PÍ/. This is one translation of the word "recept" as used in Slovak to indicate a set of instructions for cooking a specific dish of food. As such, it is a good example of the principle that for each Slovak word, you should always try to learn TWO English translations (and vice versa as well). In this case the other translation of Slovak "recept" is English "prescription", which is the piece of paper with instructions from a doctor to a pharmacist to issue a patient with specified types of medicine in return for a paltry payment. Translating recipes is a very special task. The typical Slovak form is the collective "WE do this or that", whereas the English style is the imperative "DO this, DO that". Then there's the issue of ingredients - try to get hold of a copy of the USSK Family Cookbook 2012, where everything is explained!

Andy's Wordshop

Scapegoat /skejp-gout/. Conversations about Slovakia's joint bid with Poland for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games almost always involve somebody mentioning the 2011 Winter Deaflympics scandal (though why the former should end in a scandal I cannot imagine). Someone else suggests that Jaromír Ruda might be a sort of "obetný baránok" or a "fackovací panák", shielding the real culprits (vinníci). Then someone asks how you say... In old English, a "scape" was a small sin, a "prehrešok", something which could be amended by sacrificing a sheep (ovca), a ram (baran) or a goat (koza), but later the scapegoat became understood as someone who is blamed unfairly. A "whipping boy" is something similar, meaning a "boy who is always unjustly whipped" (neprávom vybičovaný).