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'Gaslighting' Is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year For 2022

Monday November 28, 2022. 11:40 PM , from Slashdot
'Gaslighting' -- behavior that's mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful -- is Merriam-Webster's word of the year. The Associated Press reports: Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn't a single event that drove significant spikes in curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year. The gaslighting was pervasive.

Merriam-Webster'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.' More broadly, the dictionary defines the word thusly: 'The act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one's own advantage.'

Despite its relatively recent prominence -- including 'Gaslighter,' The Chicks' 2020 album featuring the rousingly angry titular single -- the word was brought to life more than 80 years ago with 'Gas Light,' a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton. It birthed two film adaptations in the 1940s. One, George Cukor's 'Gaslight' in 1944, starred Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist and Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton. The two marry after a whirlwind romance and Gregory turns out to be a champion gaslighter. Among other instances, he insists her complaints over the constant dimming of their London townhouse's gaslights is a figment of her troubled mind. It wasn't. 'It's a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us,' said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large. 'It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year,' he said.

Merriam-Webster chooses its word of the year based solely on data. Rounding out this year's Top 10 are: 'Oligarch,' 'Omicron,' 'Codify,' 'Queen consort,' 'Raid,' 'Sentient,' 'Cancel culture,' 'LGBTQIA,' and 'Loamy.' Last year's pick was 'vaccine.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/11/28/226227/gaslighting-is-merriam-websters-word-of-the-year-for...
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