Gaslighting declared as word of the year by Merriam-Webster

Like every year, Merriam-Webster, America’s oldest dictionary publisher, has chosen its word of the year.

Hyderabad: Like every year, Merriam-Webster, America’s oldest dictionary publisher, has chosen its word of the year. For the last two years, ‘pandemic’ and ‘vaccine’ were chosen to be the words of the year, as the world was in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year, ‘gaslighting’ was chosen. According to Merriam-Webster’s blog that describes why they chose this particular word, Gaslighting is the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage.

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“2022 saw a 1740% increase in lookups for gaslighting, with high interest throughout the year,” read their website.

The word originates from the title of a theatrical play in 1938. It revolves around a man who attempts to convince his wife that she is going insane. When his activities lead to the gas lights in the house going dim, he insists that the lights are not dimming.

Explaining why they chose the word, “In this age of misinformation — of “fake news,” conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls, and deepfakes — gaslighting has emerged as a word for our time,” reads the opening paragraph of their blog.

Apart from the significance of the word and its relevance to the times we live, the organisation concentrates on the words which were looked up most frequently that year to determine their word of the year.