Last Word What’s the Word?

Each year, dictionaries announce their words of the year— those words that capture a modern moment so well even our grandparents start using them. Words of the year started popping up in the early aughts from dictionaries and dialect societies, and have included pandemic, muffin top, youthquake, tergiversate, fake news and plutoed, to name just a few. So, we thought we’d take a look at some of the 2022 words.

Oxford English Dictionary opened up to the public their Word of the Year choice, and an overwhelming 93 percent of voters chose goblin mode. OED defines goblin mode as “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.”

As with every new word that enters the lexicon, goblin mode has been subjected to overanalysis. As one online source noted, “Unlike ‘cottagecore’ or the ‘clean girl aesthetic,’ which imply the adoption of some sort of new, chicer persona, goblin mode does not strive for self-betterment. It’s temporary in nature; we are all but visitors of goblin mode, though some stay longer than others. In this sense, goblin mode is about the journey, not the destination, of which there is none.

We like a simpler analysis. Think Animal on The Muppets and you’ve got goblin mode.

Merriam-Webster has chosen gaslighting as their 2022 Word of the Year, which we thought peaked a bit earlier than last year, but according to the dictionary, there was a 1,740 percent increase in lookups of gaslighting in 2022 as compared to 2021.

Gaslighting comes from the title of a 1938 play and subsequent movie where a man attempts to make his wife believe she is going insane. His efforts make the house gas lights dim and when his wife comments on it, he insists the lights aren’t dimming, making her question her own reality.

Merriam-Webster defines gaslighting as: psychological manipulation of a person usually over an extended period of time that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.

Recently, however, the definition has evolved and also includes “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage.” Basically, another word for lie.

Collins Dictionary defines permacrisis as “an extended period of instability and insecurity,” which we feel many can relate to. Collins believes permacrisis “perfectly embodies the dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another, as we wonder bleakly what new horrors might be around the corner.” Permacrisis is, of course, a relative term. Ukrainians have been suffering from the ultimate version of the word for a year now, but even in the Sandhills we can experience a form of permacrisis, from inflation to COVID to power outages to the flu. When will a period of sustained boredom return?!

Really, dictionary.com? Yes, apparently. According to their search statistics, “woman” was searched 1,400 percent more than in 2021. The search spiked in March, according to the website, when during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Senator Marsha Blackburn asked Justice Jackson to provide a definition for the word woman.

Dictionary.com also points to transgender questions, the protest movement in Iran about better rights for women and the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal as other factors in the jump.

Quiet quitting, inflation and Wordle were some other words that made dictionary.com’s short list.

Our favorite? Macquarie Dictionary of Australia asked its followers to vote and they chose bachelor’s handbag, meaning a roasted chicken sold in a disposable plastic carry bag with a handle. Cheers, mate!

Patient featured: Dilly