Euro 2012 is finished, the dust is settling and a new verb seems to have emerged from the tournament: to kerzhakov. The English newspaper The Guardian used it during their match report of England vs Italy and apparently it means 'to miss a perfect opportunity'. In the 48th minute of the game, this is what happened according to the newspaper: 'It should have been dealt with without any fuss whatsoever, but the England defence was dozing and it dropped to De Rossi, who turned and Kerzhakoved a volley wide from six yards out! '
The word refers to the Russian player Aleksandr Kerzhakov who missed plenty of good chances during Euro 2012. His reaction to all of the above? 'What can I say if they have a lack of words in their vocabulary'? (We think that many of our English students at ElaN will disagree when they are confronted with endless lists of English vocabulary).
But as both language aficionados and football fans we are obviously thrilled to see that new vocabulary can arise from these championships. That's why we would like to suggest a few new verbs as well:
To balotelli: to take off your shirt whenever you have done your job magnificently (For example: After sealing a major contract he balotellied in front of his colleagues.)
To iniesta: to be able to perform magic (For example: At ElaN, our translators and language trainers are striving to iniesta on a daily basis.)
To Ireland: to sing great songs while being funny & friendly and while wearing an amazing green hat (For example: Last night, we were irelanding when the police came and asked us to stop but we convinced them to join us and together we irelanded until the break of dawn.)
Do you have any EURO 2012-related verb suggestions? Let us know in the comments section below!