“Cease gaslighting me,” I joked to my brother. He rolled his eyes, “That’s not what the phrase ‘gaslighting’ means.” “Cease gaslighting me about gaslighting!” I yelled again.
Merriam-Webster has simply introduced that “gaslighting” is their phrase of the 12 months for 2022, noting that searches for the phrase on its web site have elevated a whopping 1,740% from final 12 months. From my perspective as a semanticist — a linguist who research which means — the phrase has two properties which have been driving us to look it up.
First, its which means is non-compositional — which means that the phrase just isn’t composed of the which means of its components. There’s nothing within the which means of the phrase as we use it at present that entails lights or fuel. On this sense, it joins the ranks of solely a handful of different English phrases like “bucket record” and “catfish.” If somebody had been to come across the phrase “gaslight” in a context during which its which means isn’t totally clear, they wouldn’t have the ability to use their inborn expertise of semantic deduction to assemble its which means from the bottom up, like they could with compositional compound phrases like “re-unlock.”
Gaslighting is outlined, partially, as “psychological manipulation of an individual often over an prolonged time period that causes the sufferer to query the validity of their very own ideas, notion of actuality,” in keeping with Merriam-Webster. “Gaslight” has a roundabout, oblique etymology, one which co-opts the title of the 1944 film, “Gaslight,” which tells the story of a girl whose husband slowly manipulates her into believing that she is shedding her thoughts. The phrase has grow to be shorthand for the habits central to the film’s plot.
Second, and associated to my brother’s criticism, the time period has undergone an intensive quantity of semantic bleaching, and in a really quick period of time. Semantic bleaching is a typical course of by which a phrase with a selected which means involves tackle a extra common which means over time. It’s a pure consequence of language customers utilizing their language in progressive methods.
Within the case of the phrase “gaslight,” the particular which means is the one which tracks the plot of the film, involving psychological manipulation over a protracted time period, culminating in grand-scale emotional abuse. The final which means is a bleached one, in that it doesn’t require any prolonged observe or long-term objectives. That is the second of Merriam-Webster’s two definitions: “the act or observe of grossly deceptive somebody particularly for one’s personal benefit.” By this definition, gaslighting can occur on a single event, so long as it’s substantial sufficient, and deliberate.
An notorious instance of semantic bleaching entails the phrase “actually.” In additional conventional utilization, it describes characterizations which can be correct to the letter (actually). Its bleached use doesn’t require any quantity of accuracy, however as an alternative confers emphasis. However this bleached use of the phrase “actually” has been increase within the collective English lexicon for over 300 years, traceable again to novels printed within the 1790s.
Within the case of “gaslight,” we’ve solely had the time period in its non-compositional sense, since 1944, and its use solely actually began taking off within the 2000s. Meaning we’ve squished an usually centuries-long technique of semantic transformation into simply 20 years. It’s no shock, then, that the result’s disagreement concerning the correct use of the time period. So my brother does have a degree, however so do I.
Jessica Rett is a professor of linguistics at UCLA. Her analysis investigates the which means of phrases and the way they contribute to the meanings of sentences, both in isolation or in broader contexts.
