And Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is … ‘Gaslighting.’

 

 

 

 

Where did ‘gaslighting’ originate from? The 1938 play and 1944 film ‘Gaslight.’  As CNN explains, “In both [play and film], a nefarious man attempts to trick his new wife into thinking she’s losing her mind, in part by telling her that the gaslights in their home, which dim when he’s in the attic doing dastardly deeds, are not fading at all.”  According to Merriam-Webster, the term ‘gaslighting’ refers to “psychological manipulation of a person over an extended period of time that causes victim to question their reality.”

 

“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.  It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large.

 

 

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‘Gaslighting’ “spent all of 2022 in the top 50 words looked up on merriam-webster.com and earned a top dog word of the year status,” according to Peter. Last year’s pick was ‘vaccine.’

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