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Merriam-Webster's 2022 Word of the Year: 'Gaslighting'

2022-12-29 244,153 Dailymotion

Gaslighting is defined as: "the psychological manipulation of a person, usually over an extended period of time."<br />According to Merriam-Webster, gaslighting , “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.”<br />Compared to 2021, searches for the word on merriam-webster.com , increased 1,740%.<br />The word of the year is typically driven by a single significant event that spiked curiosity across the country.<br />According to NBC, no single event drove curiosity in this year's word, because gaslighting was pervasive.<br />"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<br />every single day of the year;" Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, via NBC.<br />The term was first penned over 80 years ago in the 1938 play"Gas Light" by Patrick Hamilton.<br />Years later, the work would be adopted by mental health practitioners to describe a type of prolonged coercive control in abusive relationships.<br />NBC reports that those "abusive relationships" extend beyond romantic partners, friends and family, <br />and can include politicians, media and corporations.

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