Gaslighting: Word is up 1,740% this year; Understand what that means – Teach

When British playwright Patrick Hamilton wrote the play in 1938 gas light (From Light to Gas, in the literal translation), he didn’t know how often his work’s title would be used in the 21st century.

Merriam-Webster, the oldest publisher of dictionaries in the United States, has chosen “gaslighting” as its word of the year.

Searches for the word on the Merriam-Webster website increased 1,740% in 2022, according to the company.

Mind manipulation The act or practice of psychologically manipulating a person, in which information is twisted or falsified in favor of the person who is manipulating the other person.

In the age of disinformation — of fake news, conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls and deepfakes — Mind manipulation “A word for our time has emerged,” Merriam-Webster said in a statement Monday.

The word is also often used in the context of abusive relationships.

Interestingly, search interest for the word was not driven by any particular event, an editor at Merriam-Webster told the Associated Press.

“It was a highly searched-for word every day of the year,” said Peter Sokolowski.

Set in Victorian London, Patrick Hamilton’s play is about an upper-middle-class couple, whose relationship is based on lies and manipulation.

Jack Manningham, the main character, is trying to convince his wife Bella that she is going crazy. Verb in English Mind manipulation It comes from one of the situations in the play.

Her husband refutes Bella’s observation that the gas light in the house is dimming – and says it’s all her imagination.

The play was twice adapted for the screen: in the United Kingdom in 1940, and then in the United States in 1944. The American version, starring Ingrid Bergman, won two Academy Awards, and is preserved in the US National Film Registry as a “cultural” production, historically or aesthetically.”

The term primarily refers to psychological manipulation, Merriam-Webster says, but its modern use is driven by “the dramatic increase in channels and techniques used to deceive” people, especially in personal and political contexts.

The company pointed to other English-language words that were among the most popular after this year. see below:

• oligarchs (the oligarchs);
• Omicron (micron, coronavirus variant);
• codify (to organize) ;
• LGBTQIA (the acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gay, Bisexual, and Asexual);
• sensitive (sensitive: The ability to experience something and develop certain feelings🇧🇷
• parasite (something like loamy soil, but nowadays also slang for attractive people);
• raid (attack, invasion)
• King’s wife 🇧🇷King’s wife🇧🇷

– This text was published in https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-63802313