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Dutchblind wordwork

hoofdpijndossier

HOAFT-pine-doss-yay[ˈɦoːftpɛindɔˌʃeː]

Pronunciation: Marcel coenders · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

a long-running issue that gives whoever holds it a headache

Closest in English: headache, nightmare, hot-potato. None of them covers it.

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The story

Hoofdpijn is headache and a dossier is a file: the issue that lands on a minister's desk, has been there for years, and will outlast them. Dutch newspapers use it for anything from airport noise to nitrogen rules. English calls it a hot potato.

How it went in the game

Contains the answers. If you want to play the word yourself first, leave this closed.

  1. Which language is it from?Dutch
  2. Who ends up with one?A minister inheriting a stuck issue
  3. Where would you hear it?The same cabinet item, year after year
  4. What does it mean?A long-running mess nobody can fix

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