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I'm at a very basic level, and I'm doing my best to remember words and notice connections to save some memory.

Cooking and be ready seem to be related to me. In some way, when something is cooked... it is ready to be eaten. Is such a relation the reason why these two words are similar?

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Yes, there is direct relation. The process of cooking is called готовка in Russian, "making ready" or "preparation", and it is the missing link between готов and готовить.

English speakers will say "not done" about pasta or rice which were cooking for some time but still too hard to be eaten, but Russian speakers would say не готово ("not ready" to be eaten).

As a saying goes, the difference between Young Pioneer and a bratwurst is that you need to cook the latter, whereas the former is always ready.

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  • The saying will be even more indicative if one remembers that the Young Pioneers' motto "будь готов!" was a direct calque of the Boy Scouts' "be prepared!" (and not "be ready", which would be the more straightforward reverse translation).
    – Zeus
    Commented Feb 6, 2023 at 23:33

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