Merriam-Webster has announced its Word of the Year for 2022, and it is: "gaslighting." It's a reference to manipulation. They say: "In this age of misinformation . . . 'fake news,' conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls, and deepfakes . . . gaslighting has emerged as a word for our time." The definition of gaslighting is "the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one's own advantage." Or the psychological manipulation of a person . . . usually over an extended period of time . . . that causes them to question reality.
2022 saw a 1,740% increase in lookups for gaslighting.
The nine runners-up are:
"Oligarch" . . . due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Omicron" . . . because of COVID-19
"Codify" . . . as in turning abortion rights into federal law
"Queen consort" . . . what King Charles' wife, Camilla, is now known as.
"Raid" . . . due to the search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home
"Sentient" . . . after an engineer freaked us out over an unreleased A.I.
"Cancel culture" . . . no explanation needed.
"LGBTQIA" . . .the abbreviation for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, plus asexual, aromantic or agender."
"Loamy" . . . after it was brought into pop culture thanks to Wordle
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