goblin mode
Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year1 for 2022 is “goblin mode”.
A type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.
It captured the prevailing mood of individuals who [after Covid lockdowns] rejected the idea of returning to ‘normal life’, or rebelled against the increasingly unattainable aesthetic standards and unsustainable lifestyles exhibited on social media.
Flies and spiders are competing in a stack of dishes. The trash bin is overflowing. The kitchen smells awful. Vegetables are going off in the fridge while you eat potato chips. Coffee breath like thunder, you’re smoking weed and watching youtube videos you’ve seen before.
You step outside but a squirrel looks at you weird. You retreat into the shadows. A shower would feel nice, but there’s no soap, and the bath tub drain is a weird color.
You go to the grocery store with sunglasses on and your hoodie up like you’re in witness protection. You cut in front of an old lady in the self checkout line, fart audibly, and fan it towards people in line. It smells evil. Before getting out of the way you watch something on your phone and post a snarky comment.
What’s in your grocery haul? Ice cream, chocolate, apples you won’t eat, and two boxes of candy from the shelf next to the register. You run a red light on the way home and throw an empty wrapper out the window. You’re arguing out loud with a podcast when you run over traffic cones to cut through road work. Fast food debris falls out of the car door when you open it.
That’s my mental image of goblin mode. I would make a photo of one of these scenes but I’m too lazy.
In other word-news, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is “gaslighting”. Merriam-Webster maintains the Scrabble word bank2, which added 500 words this year3.
In the 8-letter category, you can now play deepfake, dumpster, ambigram, and embiggen.4 You can also play “eggcorn” which means “a word that sounds like and is mistaken for another word”.
https://scrabble.merriam.com/ is the official source. Hasbro has a version that is not up-to-date https://scrabble.hasbro.com/en-us/tools#dictionary .