According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 2022’s word of the year was “goblin mode”. Voted for by more than 318,000 members of the public, the winning expression was deemed to accurately reflect the mood of the last 12 months. It describes the lazy, chaotic state that we were apparently in this year. You probably know the type. Rotting in bed at 4am. Trawling through Reddit. Heading to the kitchen in nothing but a muscle vest to grab a fistful of peanut butter and a Peperami. We all stopped caring what we looked like and had no limits to our greedy, unkempt tendencies.
“Goblin mode” is just one in a series of TikTok-induced trends that apparently defined this past year. Others include “flop era” (when everything in your life seems to be going downhill), “feral club rat” (an intentionally messy person who parties most nights), and “rockstar girlfriend” (the act of emulating the soft-grunge aesthetic of Noughties icons like Alexa Chung).
