Guwahati, Dec 6: The term 'goblin mode' which refers to "a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations", has been chosen as the 2022 Oxford Word of the Year, the publisher behind Oxford English Dictionary announced on Monday.
As per reports, the term gained momentum on TikTok, Twitter and other social media platforms this year. It was first seen on Twitter in 2009, but went viral on social media in February 2022 after being tweeted in a mocked-up headline.
For the first time in history, the Oxford Languages opened its choice of 'Word of the Year' to public by an online voting system. More than 340,000 English speakers around the world cast their vote.
Given a choice of three words (including phrases/hashtags) lexicographers from Oxford University Press narrowed down the word 'Goblin mode' which has received a whopping 318,956 votes (95%). The fight this year was among metaverse, Goblin mode and #istandwith, and metaverse just got 4 per cent of the public vote, despite being popularised by Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg by investing billions of dollars.
