Tricky Words in this week's OVI

Dispatch and shipping. These words cover the idea of Slovak "expedícia" (of course this is not the same as English "expedition", because that means "výprava" in the sense of climbing Mount Everest). The original sense of dispatch was to remove hindrances or obstacles (prekážky), and then to set free, then to send something or someone away as quickly as possible, and finally to get rid of someone, even by killing them.
The Slovak idea of "dispečing" in a factory is the activity of sending workers and machines to do jobs in an organized way, but the English sense is reserved for sending finished goods to the customers. To avoid confusion between Slovak and English, therefore, it's better to say "shipping" for "expedícia" - of course this doesn't mean that goods leave USSK on ships If I remember, I'll explain "shipping" in the next issue.

Andy's Wordshop

The question this issue is why native English speakers don't call the last day of the year "Silvester". English speakers wonder why that day should be called "Silvester" anyway. First things first, though. Days have names in Catholic calendars because they are saints' days. The majority of native English speakers however are not Catholics, and they don't recognize the saints to the same extent, and they don't associate saints' names with specific days (and so they don't celebrate name-days either).
They know "Silvester" as a rather unusual male first name, and some think that Sylvester Stallone is a rather unusual male, but they don't automatically think that he's named after Saint Sylvester, who was one of the first Catholic Popes and died on December 31 in the year 335.