Last month a friend of mine tried to call me out on my short Hostel horror film write-up saying how my recommendation of the film actually duped him into seeing it and how horrible it was. First piece of clarification – I did not tell anybody to go waste their 10 bucks on lousy cinema. I was curious to know who out there was willing to do so. Secondly, another reader pointed out a small error I had made in the trivia (which is still actually very interesting) found on IMDB. Originally I had noted that a good portion of the film was shot in Iceland, when what I really meant to say was “the director asked the President of Iceland for an official pardon for making Icelanders look like drunken sex maniacs with the character Oli and any damage the film might cause to the country’s reputation.” Yes, that was rather off from what I wrote the first time, but I think everything is cleared up for the most part. See Hostel at your own risk and the film was shot in the Czech Republic.
Today’s word is a Czech word used in the Czech Republic:
zmrzl – froze to death
While it is certain this ‘zmrzl’ word has something to do with freezing there has been a call for verification on this particular word over at Wikipedia. Some state that it is the past-tense form of the word ‘zmrznout’ which means to freeze to death. Another person noted ‘zmrzl’ simply means (he) froze and doesn’t always result in the death of a person. Either way that’s got to be one tough way to go and considering the amount of confusion from my Hostel post I thought this was a good word to explore today. If you’re not too fond of this one stick to ‘zmrzlina’ or ‘zmrzlinový‘ which both mean ice cream according to this Bohemica.com dictionary.
Bohemica is a great, extensive, online starting point for new students. Their site is free from what I can tell and includes additional sources to helpful books and offline learning. Also, check out Amazon to purchase the Lonely Planet phrasebook and other beginner’s guides.