Oxford Word of the Year 2022 is: GOBLIN MODE

The public has spoken! After opening the choice of Word of the Year up to English speakers for the first time in its history, over the last two weeks more than 340,000 people worldwide cast their vote. Oxford University Press is pleased to announce goblin mode as the Oxford Word of the Year for 2022.

The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression reflecting the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the past twelve months, one that has potential as a term of lasting cultural significance. Supported by evidence of real language usage, Oxford’s editors track candidates as they emerge throughout the year, analyzing frequency statistics and other language data in the Oxford English Corpus. Previous words have included Vax (2021), Climate Emergency(2019), and Selfie (2013).

This year, the Oxford Languages lexicographers narrowed down a longlist of worthy contestants to a final three—metaverse, #IStandWith, and goblin mode—and between 21^st November and 2^nd December the public was invited to vote for their favourite. The response was overwhelming, with a total of 342,079 people casting their vote and countless more debating the merit of the finalists through Oxford’s social media outlets.

And the winner is…

GOBLIN MODE

With a landslide number of votes, goblin mode has been chosen as the Word of the Year, with a total of 318,956 votes, making up 93 per cent of the overall vote.

Goblin mode – a slang term, often used in the expressions ‘in goblin mode’or ‘to go goblin mode’ – is ‘a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.’

Although first seen on Twitter in 2009, goblin mode went viral on social media in February 2022, quickly making its way into newspapers and magazines after being tweeted in a mocked-up headline. The term then rose in popularity over the months following as Covid lockdown restrictions eased in many countries and people ventured out of their homes more regularly. Seemingly, it captured the prevailing mood of individuals who rejected the idea of returning to ‘normal life’, or rebelled against the increasingly unattainable aesthetic standards and unsustainable lifestyles exhibited on social media.

The Oxford Corpus lists many vivid examples of goblin mode, including ‘goblin mode is like when you wake up at 2am and shuffle into the kitchen wearing nothing but a long t-shirt to make a weird snack, like melted cheese on saltines’, as quoted in The Guardian newspaper. More recently, an opinion piece in The Times stated that ‘too many of us… have gone ‘goblin mode’ in response to a difficult year.

Speaking at a special event to announce this year’s approach to selecting the Oxford Word of the Year, Ben Zimmer, American linguist and lexicographer, said: "Goblin mode really does speak to the times and the zeitgeist, and it is certainly a 2022 expression. People are looking at social norms in new ways. It gives people the license to ditch social norms and embrace new ones."

Since the launch of the people’s choice vote, goblin mode has captured the attention of many communities online, having been a runaway favourite on social media and within online publications, such as PC Gamer, which urged followers to ‘put aside [their] petty differences and vote for ‘goblin mode’’ and Literary Hub, who also endorsed it, claiming it to be “way more fun” than the other choices.

Media outlets took to social media to run their own polls with the three finalists, including Virgin Radio UK on its Instagram stories, with host Jayne Middlemiss declaring herself #TeamGoblinMode. Other influential figures got involved in the debate; Emma Nelson, presenter and reporter for Monocle24 said she was “spoiled for choice” and that she needed to “haul herself out of #goblinmode and vote”, while Kari Paul, tech reporter for The Guardian, shared her previous allegiance to goblin modeand encouraged people to vote.

People also expressed how the other candidates were their top picks. J.D. Salbego. CEO and Founder of video game platform gDEXMetaverse, indicated that his vote also sat firmly with metaverse. Ian Goldin, Professor at Oxford University, agreed, saying, “As multiple crises engulfed our lives [in 2022], the idea of escaping into a fabricated virtual world for many has become more attractive. Virtual reality is no doubt here to stay, as are the mounting global challenges, which require our urgent attention.” Meanwhile, Susie Dent, chose #IStandWithas her Word of the Year during OUP’s launch event, saying that “after a time where we have been out of touch both physically and in the sense of communication, #IStandWith and that sense of solidarity really speaks to the moment.”

Speaking about this year’s Word of the Year campaign and the overall winner, Casper Grathwohl, President, Oxford Languages, says, “We were hoping the public would enjoy being brought into the process, but this level of engagement with the campaign caught us totally by surprise. The strength of the response highlights how important our vocabulary is to understanding who we are and processing what’s happening to the world around us. 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 idealized, 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. People are embracing their inner goblin, and voters choosing ‘goblin mode’ as the Word of the Year tells us the concept is likely here to stay.”

The runner up was metaverse with 14,484 votes (4 per cent of the overall vote), followed by #IStandWithwith 8,639 votes (3 per cent of the overall vote).

FURTHER INFORMATION ON ‘METAVERSE’ AND ‘#ISTANDWITH’

METAVERSE (second place)

The term metaverse describes ‘a (hypothetical) virtual reality environment in which users interact with one another’s avatars and their surroundings in an immersive way, sometimes posited as a potential extension of or replacement for the internet, World Wide Web, social media, etc.’ The first recorded use of metaversein the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1992, in the science fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Until late 2021, there was relatively little sustained usage of metaverse outside of specialist contexts. By October 2022 it had increased almost fourfold from the previous year in the Oxford Corpus. While some of this increase can be attributed to the name change of social media conglomerate Facebook in October 2021, the concept of the metaverse, how we use it, and what it means for the future, has also been widely discussed. Words commonly occurring near metaverse include Web3, virtual, NFT, crypto, build (as in ‘build the metaverse’), and vision (as ‘a vision of/for the metaverse’).

As we grapple with relatively new concepts like hybrid working in the virtual reality space, metaverseis particularly pertinent to debates about the ethics and feasibility of an entirely online future.

metaverse gained voting traction with crypto communities and publications. We see the term continue to grow in use as more voices join the debate about the sustainability and viability of its future.

#ISTANDWITH (third place)

The phrase ‘to stand with’ someone, in the context of supporting them or taking their side, dates back to the 14^thcentury. However, the hashtag #IStandWithemerged in the first decade of the 21^st century; evidence has been found dating back to 2009.

Used on social media to express solidarity with a specific cause, group, or person, #IStandWith has been identified as a way for people to communicate their opinions and align their stances on specific events. It is how people demonstrate activism online and speak out for what they believe in.

Data from social media and the Oxford Corpus show that #IStandWithand variants became significantly more frequent and prominent in March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Frequent uses this year include #IStandWithUkraine and #StandWithUkraine.

In what has been a turbulent year for many, #IStandWith has been used to show support for a range of causes, with evidence showing a spike in internet searches in 2022 compared to 2021.

FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE WORD OF THE YEAR 2022 CAMPAIGN

Oxford Languages adapted the Word of the Year campaign for 2022 to mark a year that has not only been characterized by the consequences of reunion and reconnection after the long social isolation of the pandemic, but also by activism, and social and political change. The team embraced a more democratic approach to the selection process this year, giving people the opportunity to reflect on their experiences and choose the word that best sums up the year for them.

For the first time in its history, the selection of Oxford’s Word of the Year has been opened up so that everyone, everywhere could have their say. The Oxford Languages lexicographers narrowed down a longlist of worthy contestants to a final three, and between 21^stNovember and 2^nd December the public was invited to vote for their favourite through the Oxford Languages website, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.