As the year 2022 is almost coming to an end, dictionaries from around the globe like Collins, Oxford, Merriam-Webster, Cambridge and Dictionary.com have released their words of the year, ranging from "goblin mode" to "Permacrisis".
The Word of the Year is described as a word or expression that has been used often by the masses during the year.
Merriam-Webster polls readers on a list of ten words it releases each year to choose the Word of the Year. The WOTY in Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries is determined by public opinion, including their votes and searches.
Here’s a selection of five words of the year that shed light on 2022-
Oxford English Dictionary — Goblin mode
Oxford defines the word as a slang term, meaning “a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.”
According to Oxford, the word signifies the current “mood of individuals who rejected the idea of returning to ‘normal life’, or rebelled against the increasingly unattainable aesthetic standards and unsustainable lifestyles exhibited on social media.”
The term was first coined on Twitter in 2009, but entered popular culture when the term went viral on social media in February 2022.
According to the Oxford Corpus, an example of goblin mode is “like when you wake up at 2 am and shuffle into the kitchen wearing nothing but a long t-shirt to make a weird snack, like melted cheese on saltines”.
Merriam-Webster — Gaslighting
The dictionary selected "gaslighting", meaning mind-manipulating, grossly misleading, and downright deceitful as its word of the year for 2022. The dictionary's top definition for gaslighting is the 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.”
However, with the passing of time, the meaning of gaslighting has become quite simpler and it is now understood as “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for a personal advantage,” by the dictionary.
The term gaslighting was later used by mental health practitioners to clinically describe a form of prolonged coercive control in abusive relationships.
The news agency stated that the word "gaslighting" was brought to life more than 80 years ago with “Gas Light,” a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton.
Collins Dictionary — Permacrisis
The word "Permacrisis" is a noun defined by the U.K.-based publisher HarperCollins as "an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events." These include political instability, ongoing wars, including the Russia-Ukraine war, climate change and a rise in cost-of-living.
In its blog post, the dictionary says that the term permacrisis embodies the "dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another, as we wonder bleakly what new horrors might be around the corner."
Cambridge Dictionary — Homer
The dictionary defines homer, their Word of the Year for 2022, as “an informal American English word for a home run in baseball.” The word is inspired from the global word game sensation, Wordle.
In the Cambridge English Corpus, it said, homer as a noun is "often used as the object of verbs such as hit, slug, belt, smack, or smash, which vividly convey the force needed to hit a baseball out of the field of play to score a home run".
The website stated that the word ‘woman’ registered a 1,400% spike in searches over 2022.
While Dictionary.com defines the word as “an adult female person”, it also emphasizes that “the word belongs to each and every woman - however they define themselves”.
It stated, “It’s one of the oldest words in the English language. One that’s fundamental not just to our vocabulary but to who we are as humans. And yet it’s a word that continues to be a source of intense personal importance and societal debate. It’s a word that’s inseparable from the story of 2022.”