Gas lamps illuminate St. Louis’ Gaslight Square on April 2, 1962. “Gaslighting” — thoughts manipulating, grossly deceptive, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s phrase of 2022.

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Gas lamps illuminate St. Louis’ Gaslight Square on April 2, 1962. “Gaslighting” — thoughts manipulating, grossly deceptive, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s phrase of 2022.

JMH/AP

NEW YORK — “Gaslighting” — thoughts manipulating, grossly deceptive, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year.

Lookups for the phrase on merriam-webster.com elevated 1,740% in 2022 over the yr earlier than. But one thing else occurred. There wasn’t a single occasion that drove important spikes within the curiosity, because it normally goes with the chosen phrase of the yr.

The gaslighting was pervasive.

“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,” mentioned Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at massive, in an unique interview with The Associated Press forward of Monday’s unveiling.

“It was a word looked up frequently every single day of the year,” he mentioned.

There have been deepfakes and the darkish internet. There have been deep states and faux information. And there was an entire lot of trolling.

Merriam-Webster’s prime definition for gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of an individual, normally over an prolonged time period, that “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.”

Gaslighting is a heinous software ceaselessly utilized by abusers in relationships — and by politicians and different newsmakers. It can occur between romantic companions, inside a broader household unit and amongst pals. It is usually a company tactic, or a solution to mislead the general public. There’s additionally “medical gaslighting,” when a well being care skilled dismisses a affected person’s signs or sickness as “all in your head.”

Despite its comparatively current prominence — together with “Gaslighter,” The Chicks’ 2020 album that includes the rousingly offended titular single — the phrase was delivered to life greater than 80 years in the past with “Gas Light,” a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton.

It birthed two movie variations within the Forties. One, George Cukor’s “Gaslight” in 1944, starred Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist and Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton. The two marry after a whirlwind romance and Gregory seems to be a champion gaslighter. Among different situations, he insists her complains over the fixed dimming of their London townhouse’s gaslights is a figment of her troubled thoughts. It wasn’t.

The demise of Angela Lansbury in October drove some curiosity in lookups of the phrase, Sokolowski mentioned. She performed Nancy Oliver, a younger maid employed by Gregory and advised to not trouble his “high-strung” spouse.

The time period gaslighting was later utilized by psychological well being practitioners to clinically describe a type of extended coercive management in abusive relationships.

“There is this implication of an intentional deception,” Sokolowski mentioned. “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. 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, which logs 100 million web page views a month on its website, chooses its phrase of the yr based mostly solely on information. Sokolowski and his staff weed out evergreen phrases mostly regarded as much as gauge which phrase obtained a big bump over the yr earlier than.

They do not slice and cube why individuals search for phrases, which could be something from fast spelling and definition checks to some type of try at inspiration or motivation. Some of the droves who regarded up “gaslighting” this yr might need needed to know, merely, if it is one or two phrases, or whether or not it is hyphenated.

“Gaslighting,” Sokolowski mentioned, spent all of 2022 within the prime 50 phrases regarded up on merriam-webster.com to earn prime canine phrase of the yr standing. Last yr’s decide was “vaccine.” Rounding out this yr’s Top 10 are:

— “Oligarch,” pushed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

— “Omicron,” the persistent COVID-19 variant and the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.

— “Codify,” as in turning abortion rights into federal regulation.

— “Queen consort,” what King Charles’ spouse, Camilla is newly referred to as.

— “Raid,” as within the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

— “Sentient,” with lookups introduced on by Google canning the engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had change into sentient.

— “Cancel culture,” sufficient mentioned.

— “LGBTQIA,” for lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual, aromantic or agender.

— “Loamy,” which many Wordle customers tried again in August, although the suitable phrase that day was “clown.”