panenka means A softly-struck chipped penalty kick into the middle of the goal. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why this word is great
PANENKA — [Noun] A deftly chipped penalty kick, struck with minimal pace down the center of the goal to deceive a goalkeeper committed to a dive. An eponym from the name of Czech footballer Antonín Panenka, who famously executed such a kick to win the UEFA Euro 1976 final. Unlike a generic “penalty kick” or a merely locational “spot kick,” a Panenka is a specific act of psychological warfare disguised as nonchalance. It is the ball’s gentle arc over the prone keeper; the agonizing, suspended second in the stadium lights; and the hollow thump of leather meeting an undefended net. This is the quiet, cruel joke played on certainty itself, a triumph of patience over power.
noun
- A softly-struck chipped penalty kick into the middle of the goal.“Amazingly, in the most important football competition in the world, he had scored a penalty kick in the most risky and theatrical way possible, with what is called a panenka, after Antonín Panenka, a Czech footballer who in 1976 scored a vital penalty kick by chipping the ball over the goalkeeper into the center of the net.”