Agenda (say aDŽENda/). This word comes straight from Latin and literally means “things needing to be done“ or “things worth doing“. It’s a classic tricky word because it’s used in the same form in Slovak and English, but with different meanings. I’ll always remember going to register with the police after coming here from England and seeing the name of the department Cudzinecká agenda (“things needing to be done with foreigners“), whereas in English it means the list of things needing to be discussed during a meeting. The agenda is typically circulated to participants before the meeting, so that they can prepare for it properly. The general difference between Slovak and English regarding the use of words from Latin or Greek is that they tend to be more official in Slovak, especially compared to the equivalent Slavic words, for example doktor and lekár.
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