Lately you may have read or heard people saying dilly ding, dilly dong. It’s an interesting idiom that expresses a celebratory feeling while underscoring focus and hard work leading to the celebration. The history behind this is short and sweet. It was coined by 64-year-old Claudio Ranieri.
In December 2015, the Italian manager spoke about the Leicester City Football Club (also known as The Foxes) officially qualifying for the EUFA Champions League — a championship that the club went on to win as they nabbed the Premier League title — and he used the term dilly ding, dilly dong.
Claudio Ranieri uttered the idiom dilly ding, dilly dong again in March 2015. and once again, to the delight of mainstream media, at a press conference on April 22, 2016.
Dilly ding, dilly dong! Come on! You forget. You forget. You speak about blah-blah-blah. But we are in the Champions League. Come on, man! Oh, it’s fantastic. Fantastic. Terrific.
The Foxes were an under-performing football club in 2010 when Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha bought the team. Claudio Ranieri came on board in the summer of 2015 and led the team to victory months later.
However when he said dilly ding, dilly dong in 2015 and 2016, this wasn’t the first time Claudio Ranieri used the idiom. Over his 30-year managerial career, dilly ding, dilly dong is a phrase he’s used often. Originally, it was used as a lighthearted way of seriously underscoring the need for a wake-up call to members of the teams he managed, and it oftentimes led to positive results.
Idiomation adds dilly ding, dilly dong to the list of fun expressions we’ve researched, and we wish it a very long life.
Historically Speaking 