'Gaslighting:' Merriam-Webster's word of the year 

The U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced that “gaslighting” is its 2022 word of the year on Monday. 

Merriam-Webster defines “gaslighting” as "the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one's own advantage,” causing 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."

Searches for the word in the online dictionary increased by 1,740% compared to previous years. 

Additionally, compared to other popular terms, searches for “gaslighting” remained constantly high during the year, instead of increasing only at certain moments. 

"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,'' Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, told the AP.

"It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year," he added.

The word came to life over 80 years ago with the 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton called “Gas Light.” The term was then used by mental health practitioners to describe a form of prolonged coercive control in abusive relationships. 

"There is this implication of an intentional deception," Sokolowski said.

"And once one is aware of that deception, it's not just a straightforward lie, as in, you know, I didn't eat the cookies in the cookie jar,” he added. “It's something that has a little bit more devious quality to it. It has possibly an idea of strategy or a long-term plan."

Merriam-Webster chooses its word of the year based on the number of searches for a word throughout the year in its online dictionary. Evergreen words that are most commonly looked up are then weeded up to reveal those that have seen an increase in searches compared to previous years. 

Last year’s word of the year was “vaccine” and 2020’s word of the year was “pandemic.”