'Metaverse' loses out to 'goblin mode' as Oxford's Word of the Year

Quick Take

  • “Metaverse” was the runner-up for Oxford Language’s Word of the Year.
  • The winner was “goblin mode,” a slang term to describe “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy.”

A term for the slovenly and lazy among us beat out the metaverse for Oxford’s Word of the Year in a landslide vote.

"Goblin mode," which refers to a “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations,” was first seen on Twitter in 2009 and went viral on social media in February.

The word "metaverse," which the maker of the Oxford English dictionary says was only used in specialist contexts until last year, came in second place, with usage increasing almost fourfold from the previous year.

"While some of this increase can be attributed to the name change of social media conglomerate Facebook in October 2021, the concept of the ‘metaverse,’ how we use it, and what it means for the future, has also been widely discussed," Oxford Languages said. 

Google Trend data shows that search interest in the term indeed spiked following Facebook renaming to "Meta" as part of its efforts to rebrand as a metaverse company.

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Oxford Languages said that words commonly occurring near metaverse include web3, virtual, crypto, build, vision and NFT, the latter of which which was crowned as word of the year by rival dictionary publisher Collins in 2021 as trading volume hit all time highs for high-profile projects.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

Editor

To contact the editors of this story:
Nathan Crooks at
[email protected]
Christiana Loureiro at
[email protected]