You higher imagine it — “gaslighting” is the phrase of the yr.
The newly widespread time period for mendacity to somebody with a view to mentally manipulate them topped Merriam-Webster’s checklist of 2022’s hottest phrases and phrases, which additionally included phrases similar to “cancel tradition,” “oligarch,” and “Queen Consort.”
Whereas “gaslighting’s” first place spot wasn’t as a consequence of a single occasion that drove searches for the time period, which noticed a 1740% enhance in 2022, officers with Merriam-Webster stated its rise is sensible given the social local weather.
“On this age of misinformation — of ‘faux information,’ conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls, and deepfakes— gaslighting has emerged as a phrase for our time,” Merriam-Webster stated in asserting the phrase of the yr Monday.
Peter Sokolowski, the dictionary’s editor at massive, stated the phrase was regarded up every single day in 2022.
Different phrases that made the dictionary’s prime 10 for 2022 included “oligarch,” stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
“Omicron” was additionally a preferred search phrase this yr pushed by the most-recent and extremely contagious variant of the coronavirus.
One other standard time period this yr was “cancel tradition,” which was regarded up most ceaselessly in January when Pope Francis used the time period in his yearly handle to diplomats from around the globe, in keeping with Sokolowski.
On-line dictionary customers additionally turned to Merriam-Webster to lookup the phrase “codify” when Roe v. Wade was struck down and plenty of had been keen on studying how abortion rights might be codified into federal regulation.
After former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property was swarmed by FBI brokers in August, individuals regarded up “raid.”
And when Google fired an engineer who claimed an unrelease AI system had turn into “sentient” that phrase additionally grew to become a preferred search.
“Queen consort,” referring to King Charles’ spouse, Camilla, was additionally a generally searched-for time period this previous yr. “LGBTQIA” was additionally a preferred search this previous yr, peaking throughout June’s Satisfaction Month.
The final phrase to make the highest 10 was “loamy,” a phrase that tricked many Wordle gamers in August, although the right phrase that day had been “clown.”
Merriam-Webster tracks 100 million pageviews a month on its web site, after which chooses its phrase of the yr based mostly on information. After eradicating evergreen phrases which can be generally regarded up, officers discover which phrases acquired a major bump from the earlier yr.
Gaslighting spent all of 2022 within the prime 50 phrases regarded up on the dictionary’s web site, incomes it the title of phrase of the yr. Final yr’s choose was “vaccine.”
The dictionary website gaslighting’s full definition as the “psychological manipulation of an individual normally over an prolonged time frame that causes the sufferer to query the validity of their very own ideas, notion of actuality, or reminiscences and usually results in confusion, lack of confidence and vanity, uncertainty of 1’s emotional or psychological stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator.”
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