Going Goblin

It was the year of the slow slide back into our chaotic public lives; of a ceaseless pandemic's third year, and also one in which a world war seemed imminent. There was but one word to describe how many of us were doing in 2022: 'goblin mode!

- Naorem Anuja

Voted the Oxford Word of the Year by a public poll of English speakers around the globe-a first in its history-the term 'goblin mode' crystallizes the nearly ubiquitous instinct to choose comfort and coping mechanisms over everything else. According to the publishing house Oxford Languages, the neologism denotes 'a type of behaviour, which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations. Think