Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Terminology - WOTTIES 2022

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - Oxford English Dictionary "Goblin Mode"

Remnants of pandemic lockdowns? Cynicism in a looming recession? The term goblin mode won the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Word of the Year (WOTY) 2022 contest. A contest breaking an almost 20-year tradition of committee-selected WOTY, at the famous English dictionary that claims to be: The definitive record of the English language for more than 1000 years.

Goblin mode was competing for the Word of Year 2022 with Metaverse and the hashtag #IStandwith, when it won by a huge landslide. Indeed, Goblin mode won almost unanimously with 93% out of the more than 340,000 votes cast. Metaverse came in second with just 4% of the votes.

Defined as: “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations”, the consensus makes one wonder.

How representative was the sample of votes cast? Does the selection of goblin mode reflect post-pandemic experience, or is it the expression of unanimous liking for a term, that sweetly embraces going feral? The Guardian further describes Goblin Mode as:

“embracing the comforts of depravity: spending the day in bed watching 90 Day Fiancé on mute while scrolling endlessly through social media, pouring the end of a bag of chips in your mouth; downing Eggo toaster oven waffles with hot sauce over the sink because you can’t be bothered to put them on a plate. Leaving the house in your pajamas and socks only to get a single Diet Coke from the bodega.”

Regardless of speculations on the reasons motivating voter preferences, Goblin mode will certainly go down in the OED history of WOTTIES, as the first people’s choice of the winner of ‘em all in 2022.