“Gaslighting” is Merriam Webster’s Word of the Year

The word of the year is "gaslighting", and that's no lie.

Merriam-Webster says people looked up the definition of that term dramatically more this year than in previous years..

The publishing company says gaslighting is "the act or practice of grossly misleading someone."

The word's origin comes from the name of a 1938 play involving a man who tries to make his wife believe she is going insane.

one of his tricks is to make the gas lights in the house dim, and then deny the lower lighting to his wife, leading to her not trusting her own perceptions.