Words of the year

By Emma Kirke

How do you choose one word to encompass 2022? In the English language, you don’t! Instead, each major dictionary comes out with their word that help to collectively provide a snapshot of the year as we reflect on all it had to offer and choose what to take with us into the New Year. For the first time in a couple years, none of the words had an explicit reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One of the first to announce their choice, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary choose ‘Gaslighting‘ as their word of the year. In this age of misinformation, the term refers to the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage.” It originated from the 1938 play “Gaslight”. The plot centres around a woman who notices belongings disappearing, noises coming from the attic and the house’s gas lights dimming. When she tells her husband about what she is observing, he convinces her that it is simply in her head, and she is going insane. With misinformation rife across many platforms, and even counting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau among its victims this year, it is important to listen and think critically about the information we are being presented with. For those that have fallen prey to misinformation, it is important to engage with compassion.

In the CPA, core collaborator TREE teaches people to create space for others, working with a wide variety of groups from elementary schools to board rooms to help participants build empathy, peace and communication into their daily lives and interactions. Project Ploughshares works hard to present accurate accounts of global trends in peace and conflict, especially with regard to the arms trade and emerging technologies. ESGTree provides data solutions that deliver accurate information to help businesses best understand their environmental and social footprint.

In announcing their word of the year, the UK-based Collins Dictionary explained their choice of the word ‘permacrisis’ by saying it “sums up quite succinctly just how truly awful 2022 has been for so many people.” The term permacrisis is defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity.” While the term originated in academia in the 1970s, it has seen a spike in recent months in the common vernacular.

Beyond the English language, people in Belgium and the Netherlands voted for Klimaatklever, a term that describes the young climate activists who targeted famous paintings in protest of political inaction on the climate file. The newly created term combing the Dutch words climate and sticker entered the Van Dale dictionary, which is considered the authority on the Dutch language, following a string of protests at museums around the world.

This mostly harmless endeavour - all the paintings impacted were protected by glass, so any impact was literally window dressing - brought attention to the frustration of a younger generation. In response to living formative years amidst an only increasing onslaught on crisis – or a permacrisis – these protests captured the desperation of a generation hoping to find a listening ear. 

This year, the Oxford word of the year is ‘Goblin mode' as acclaimed by 93% of the public vote conducted by the dictionary. Perhaps in a response to a permacrisis, the term refers to a “type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.”

One of the most common settings for the term is TikTok which is used to rebuff social media content that presents only one’s best self to viewers. Goblin mode, on the other hand, embraces deviation from such social norms. It rose in usage during the beginning of 2022 when many countries were easing their COVID-19 restrictions and people were considering what a “normality” might look like. The reality that COVID-19 is likely to be with us for a long time, in one form or another, has given many the licence to ditch social norms and embrace new ones, even goblin mode.

As we enter the new year, it feels right to take stock of the “unprecedented times” we live in and re-evaluate expectations of ourselves and each other. Instead of dismissing concerns, how can we engage critically and lift up the right voices? Instead of presenting a perfect image, how can we BeReal and come out on the other side to a more compassionate new year?

In the New Year, we encourage you to come out and engage with our upcoming gallery launch featuring words painted as street art in conflict zones - ‘Your Walls Can(not) Divide Us’ - and continue the conversation.