During the Euro 2012 tournament the languagecaster team will explain a football headline that has appeared in the English-speaking press. Today’s headline is Dutch Dehli Ache. You can also find many more examples of football cliches here and our huge football glossary here. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Euro 2012 Headline of the Day: Dutch Dehli Ache
Today’s headline is from The Sun newspaper and is a play on words, a pun, on the name of the scorer of the Danish winning goal against Holland: midfielder Krohn-Delhi. ‘Dehli ache‘ is a combination of two phrases: belly ache – a stomach pain and ‘Dehli belly’ which is a term used to describe diarrhea. Both of these phrases refer to a feeling of discomfort and that is how the Dutch felt after their surprise defeat – they were very sick indeed. Therefore the headline Dutch Dehli Ache, which also includes an example of alliteration, can be re-written as ‘The Dutch national team are not feeling well due to Denmark’s Krohn-Dehli’s goal’.