As 2022 is nearing its close The dictionaries are now chiming in on the word describes the entire year. According the Oxford Dictionaries, “goblin mode” is the term that will be the word of the year. Every year, the company picks one word for the year, however this year it allowed the public to vote on the word to pick one of three contenders. Over the course of two weeks more than 300,000 voters took part in the voting process and on Monday, the dictionary announced goblin mode as the winner.
It is defined as “goblin style” in slang word for “a kind of behavior that is inexplicably self-indulgent, lazy lavish or greedy in a manner that is contrary to the norms of society or social expectations.”
Oxford Dictionaries says its annual word of the year is a reflection of how people feel over the previous twelve months. It will also select a word that could have a long-lasting significance to the culture. The past Oxford terms of the year have included “vax” for 2021 “climate emergencies” in 2019 and “selfie” in 2013.
“Goblin mode” began to be used via Twitter back in the year 2009 however the phrase became popular on February 20, 2022. The increase in popularity coincided with an relaxation of COVID’s limitations, when more people were able to get outside of their home. Some people resisted or struggled to return to normalcy, and continued living life going about their lives in goblin-like mode.
“Goblin Mode” is a true ode of the current times as well as time-based zeitgeist. And it’s certainly a 2022 era expression. People are examining social norms in different ways. This gives people the freedom to abandon social norms and adopt new ones.” American linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer said at an event to promote Oxford Dictionaries.
Although it’s a common phrase that is often used via social media platforms, it’s made its way into some of the biggest newspapers too, such as the time The Times of London published an opinion piece where the author stated that the majority of people had been in”goblin” mode “in response to an extremely challenging year.”
The second place winner of Oxford’s year-end word poll came from “metaverse,” describing “a (hypothetical) virtual reality world that allows users to interact with each other’s avatars and the environment in a completely immersive manner which is often thought of as an extension or alternative to web-based technologies, the World Wide Web, social media and so on.” According to the definition of “metaverse” in the Dictionary. Although the term metaverse has been in use since the beginning of the 1990s, it really took off over the past year , as Facebook tried to it as a company that was a metaverse.
In the third position: “#IStandWith,” a hashtag that can be used in order to “express the solidarity of a certain person, group or individual,” the dictionary says.
Oxford is only one of many large dictionary companies that are competing to determine”the word that will be used throughout the calendar year. In the month of March, Merriam-Webster selected “gaslighting” as the word of the year. Collins English Dictionary went with “permacrisis. “