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‘Goblin mode’ revealed as Oxford word of the year 2022

Agencies
06 Dec 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 05 Dec 2022 22:28:13
‘Goblin mode’ revealed as Oxford word of the year 2022

The first Oxford word of the year to be chosen by public vote has been announced.

The winning word, “goblin mode”, is a slang term describing “unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy” behaviour, reports BBC.

It was one of three potential choices selected by Oxford lexicographers.

Thousands managed to drag themselves out of goblin mode to vote, as the phrase won by a landslide with 318,956 votes, making up 93 per cent of the total.

So, what does goblin mode mean exactly?

According to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, it is a slang term often used in the expressions such as “I am in goblin mode” or “to go goblin mode”.

It went on to explain it as “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations”.

The term started appearing online in 2009 but went viral earlier this year over a fictitious headline scandal involving actress and model Julia Fox as well as a popular Reddit post describing someone who has been acting like a goblin.

As Covid restrictions eased, the term continued to grow as people realised they did not want to go back to the way life was before.

It prompted a campaign for its selection, with the PC Gamer magazine asking readers to “put aside our petty differences and vote for ‘goblin mode’ over ‘metaverse’ as the Oxford Word of the Year”, because “goblin mode rules”.

It’s perhaps hard to argue with that logic when many of us can feel a little goblin-like occasionally.

It is the first time the word of the year has been chosen by the public, a decision made in a year organisers described as “more divided than ever”.

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