The Tameside Radio presenter takes a closer look at the winners of the dictionary word of the year. Have you used any of these yourself?

As the nights get colder and the festive lights twinkle against the frosty sky, we've recently been treated to a trio of submissions for word of the year. Language constantly evolves, and is a great indicator of the times. I thought we should examine all three winners of word of the year, and pick a favourite.

Goblin mode : this was a landslide winner in the Oxford dictionary public vote, following on from "vax" (2021), "climate emergency" (2019), and "selfie" (2013). It was one of three possibilities, and I have to say I hadn't come across it until this vote cropped up. The other options available were "metaverse" and "#IStandWith", and the winner gobbled up around 93% of the votes, attracting 318.956 people. No sign of a 52/48 split here, like a certain other big vote we could mention.

Goblin mode apparently 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". The level of engagement in this vote is pretty staggering, and the Guardian reports Oxford Languages President Casper Grathwohl said it had caught them "totally by surprise".

It seems goblin mode is a rejection of the Instagram-friendly, green tea sipping, exercise heavy, picture perfect lifestyle that social media needles us all to aspire to. It's a rebellion against this perfection, and an admission that sometimes all we want to do is eat bad food in our pyjamas, and not face the world.

I was chatting to Daisy Dewsnap, my colleague here at Quest Media, and it dawned on me that she's never known a time without social media. I'm so grateful to have grown up without it in my school years. If someone wanted to troll you back then, it arrived in the form of a chalk-drawn body part on your blazer, or a rude note shoved in your pocket.

Whilst social media has many benefits, I think there are certainly studies to be done in future about the effects it has had on us as a population. Goblin mode is a rejection of societal pressure to live your best life. It's a rebellion, and I actually quite like it as a phrase (not sure it's technically a word, but that's the pedant in me!). The pressure to return to the office after lockdown, the disapproval of a day spent binge watching a series on Netflix, the constant hamster wheel of modern life...sometimes it probably does us all good to hit the goblin mode button, I guess. I'd best finish this article first though, otherwise the editor won't be happy.

I certainly have no desire to live in the metaverse, and it feels like some kind of weird fantasy that Mark Zuckerberg had following a cheese dream that has now gone too far down the road for him to admit it's all a bit far-fetched. And as for '#IStandWith', I have nothing against a bit of activism and political chat on Twitter, but that platform has also veered off in some dubious directions lately. I find it a curious form of narcissim that people are willing to pay a monthly fee for a blue 'verified' tick, to be honest.

Meanwhile, American dictionary Merriam-Webster selected gaslighting as their word of the year. There's certainly been a lot of that around this year. It's not a new word, but in case you're unsure of its meaning, it is defined as "the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one's own advantage". 2022 saw a 1740% increase in people looking up gaslighting, and interest remained high all year.

Turning to the Collins Dictionary, they went for permacrisis, and their Head of Learning Alex Beecroft said the word "sums up just how truly awful 2022 has been for so many people". And that was just the Kwarteng fiscal event. I was pleased to see that quiet quitting also made the list. I wrote a column about that a few months ago, and it essentially involves doing the bare minimum that your contract at work stipulates, and no more. It's a subtle way of regaining some work/life balance, and rejects the "always on" culture of responding to e-mails out of hours, for example.

With inflation soaring, food prices out of control, pressure on mortgages and the rental sector, heating becoming a luxury and war raging this year in Europe, it's certainly no wonder many of us have gone into goblin mode.

You can listen to Alex every weekday from 7am to 11am and on the 'Super Scoreboard' show on Saturdays from 3pm to 7pm, on Tameside Radio 103.6FM. 

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