Tricky Words in this week's OVI

Aggregate. This is another of the original type of tricky word, where the Slovak and English forms look very similar but the meanings may be quite different. The underlying idea is the same: something with a large mass composed of lots of smaller bits, and the original connection is with minerals (nerasty, horniny), meaning a mass of rock consisting of several different minerals fused together.
This is the principal meaning in English, and the word can be used in this sense in Slovak too, but another meaning has developed in Slovak, an engine, a large machine or a set of equipment. This idea of "agregát" does not make sense in English. English aggregate may be a mixture of sand and pebbles for making concrete, or a load of demetalized graded steelmaking slag (troska) used in road foundations or parking lots.

Andy's Wordshop

A keen reader of this column (jt) has asked me for some English expressions involving colors. Some may have similar meaning in Slovak, while others may be surprisingly different - let's see. To see red = to get suddenly very angry about something. To go red = your face color when you are shy or embarrassed. To go as white as a sheet = your face color when you are very shocked or frightened. To be green = new in a job, inexperienced, but green with envy = zelený/á od závisti, and to go green = your face color when you are going to vomit. Someone can be "good as gold", but gold is not used generally for kind people (say "sweet"). To be browned off = to be bored. Blue = sad, depressed or depressing. Yellow = cowardly (zbabelý/á) - does that make sense in Slovak?