Let’s be real – 2022 hasn’t been quite the year we hoped it would be.
A cost of living crisis, inflation, recession – you name it, the year that was meant to kickstart the post-pandemic ‘roaring 20s’ has had it.
With ‘Why am I always tired?’ being one of Google’s most searched for terms at the moment, it’s time to face it, we’re all absolutely done in after the last few years.
And nothing has made that more obvious than Oxford’s Word of the Year.
“Goblin mode” has been chosen by the public as the word of 2022 (the first word ever to be decided by the public) and it seriously says a lot about how we’re all feeling.
The term means “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations”.
Hard relate, Oxford Dictionaries.
More than 340,000 English speakers around the globe chose the word following a choice of three being put to the public.
“Metaverse” came in second, followed by “#IStandWith”. However, Goblin Mode took the top spot with a whopping 93% of the vote.
Oxford Languages president Casper Grathwohl said: “Given the year we’ve just experienced, ‘goblin mode’ resonates with all of us who are feeling a little overwhelmed at this point.
“It’s a relief to acknowledge that we’re not always the idealised, curated selves that we’re encouraged to present on our Instagram and TikTok feeds. This has been demonstrated by the dramatic rise of platforms like BeReal where users share images of their unedited selves, often capturing self-indulgent moments in goblin mode.”
