“Gaslighting” is the word of the year according to Merriam-Webster. It is mind-manipulating, highly deceptive, and blatantly dishonest.
In 2022, there were 1,740% more searches for the term on Merriam-Webster.com than to the year before. But something else happened. As is typically the case with the chosen word of the year, there was no particular event that caused substantial surges in curiosity.
Gaslighting was widespread.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press prior to Monday’s announcement, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski stated, “It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us.”
“It was a frequently looked-up word every single day of the year,” he explained.
Deepfakes and the black web existed. Deep states and fake news were present. And there was a substantial amount of trolling.
Merriam-Webster defines gaslighting as the psychological manipulation of a person, typically over an extended period of time, that “leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one’s emotional or mental stability, and dependence on the perpetrator”
Gaslighting is a vile tactic typically employed by relationship abusers, as well as politicians and other newsmakers. It can occur among love partners, extended family members, and friends. It may be a corporate strategy or an attempt to deceive the public. There is also “medical gaslighting,” which occurs when a medical expert dismisses the symptoms or condition of a patient as “all in your head.”
Despite its relatively recent notoriety — including “Gaslighter,” The Chicks’ 2020 album containing the rousingly indignant title track – the word was given birth in 1938 by Patrick Hamilton’s play “Gas Light.”
It generated two film adaptations in the 1940s. The 1944 film “Gaslight,” directed by George Cukor, stars Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist and Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton. After a whirlwind relationship, the couple weds, and Gregory proves to be an expert gaslighter. Among other things, he claims that her complaints about the frequent lowering of the gaslights in their London townhouse are figments of her troubled mind. It wasn’t.
According to Sokolowski, the death of Angela Lansbury in October stimulated considerable interest in the word’s definition. She portrayed Nancy Oliver, a young maid employed by Gregory and instructed not to disturb his “nervous” wife.
The term gaslighting was later employed by mental health practitioners to clinically define a sort of extended coercive control in abusive relationships.
Sokolowski stated, “There is a suggestion of purposeful misrepresentation.” “And if one is aware of this deception, it is not a simple falsehood, such as “I didn’t eat the cookies in the cookie jar.” It is something with a slightly more deceptive quality. It may have a strategy or long-term plan in mind.”
Merriam-Webster, whose website receives 100 million visitors per month, chooses its Word of the Year exclusively on the basis of data. Sokolowski and his team weed out the perennial terms that are most frequently searched up to determine which term experienced a big increase over the previous year.
People look for words for a variety of reasons, ranging from simple spelling and meaning checks to attempts to find inspiration or motivation. Some of the millions of people who looked up “gaslighting” this year may have merely wanted to know if it is one or two words, or if it is hyphenated.
“Gaslighting,” according to Sokolowski, spent all of 2022 among the top 50 most-searched terms on merriam-webster.com, earning it the title of most popular word of the year. Last year’s pick was “vaccine.” Rounding out this year’s Top 10 are:
- “Oligarch,” driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- “Omicron,” the persistent COVID-19 variant and the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
- “Codify,” as in turning abortion rights into federal law.
- “Queen consort,” what King Charles’ wife, Camilla is newly known as.
- “Raid,” as in the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
- “Sentient,” with lookups brought on by Google canning the engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient.
- “Cancel culture,” enough said.
- “LGBTQIA,” for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual, aromantic or agender.
- “Loamy,” which many Wordle users tried back in August, though the right word that day was “clown.”
In September, Merriam-Webster announced the addition of adorkable, MacGyver, yet, and shrinkflation to its dictionary.
In the category of slang, new additions included janky (of extremely poor quality), sus (suspicious or suspect), and lewk (attractive) (a fashion look that is distinctive to the wearer and that is noticeable and memorable to others.)
The publisher included abbreviations such as “TBH” (to be honest) and “FTW” (for the win) as well as pop culture words such as “faux-hawk” and “dad bod” last year.
While Merriam-Webster is one of the most well-known dictionary publishers, it is not the only one participating in the “word of the year” competition. The Collins English Dictionary just released their choice for the year 2022: “permacrisis,” defined as “a prolonged period of instability and insecurity.” In a blog post announcing Collins’ decision, author David Shariatmadari stated that the term “perfectly expresses the dizzying feeling of lurching from one unprecedented occurrence to the next, while we dread what fresh atrocities may lurk just around the corner.”