![]() ![]() ![]() There wasn’t a single event that drove significant spikes in the curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year. To be out like a light "suddenly or completely unconscious" is from 1934.Lookups for the word on increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. The rock concert light-show is from 1966. To see the light "come into the world" is from 1680s later as "come to full realization" (1812). To figuratively stand in (someone's) light is from late 14c. Phrases such as according to (one's) lights "to the best of one's natural or acquired capacities" preserve an older sense attested from 1520s. A source of joy or delight has been the light of (someone's) eyes since Old English: Ðu eart dohtor min, minra eagna leoht. Meaning "person eminent or conspicuous" is from 1590s. Quaker use is by 1650s New Light / Old Light in church doctrine also is from 1650s. Meaning "a consideration which puts something in a certain view" (as in in light of) is from 1680s. Meaning "something used for igniting" is from 1680s. The figurative spiritual sense was in Old English the sense of "mental illumination" is first recorded mid-15c. The -gh- was an Anglo-French scribal attempt to render the Germanic hard -h- sound, which has since disappeared from this word. "brightness, radiant energy, that which makes things visible," Old English leht (Anglian), leoht (West Saxon), "light, daylight spiritual illumination," from Proto-Germanic *leukhtam (source also of Old Saxon lioht, Old Frisian liacht, Middle Dutch lucht, Dutch licht, Old High German lioht, German Licht, Gothic liuhaþ "light"), from PIE root *leuk- "light, brightness." Gas-oven is from 1851 as a kitchen appliance gas-stove from 1848. Gas also meant "fun, a joke" in Anglo-Irish and was used so by Joyce (1914). Slang sense of "empty talk" is from 1847 slang meaning "something exciting or excellent" first attested 1953, from earlier hepster slang gasser in the same sense (1944). "The success of this artificial word is unique". Meaning "intestinal vapors" is from 1882. Modern scientific sense began 1779, with later secondary specialization to "combustible mix of vapors" (1794, originally coal gas) "anesthetic" (1894, originally nitrous oxide) and "poison gas" (1900). ![]() Hunc spiritum, incognitum hactenus, novo nomine gas voco ("This vapor, hitherto unknown, I call by a new name, 'gas.'") van Helmont (1577-1644), probably influenced by Paracelsus, who used khaos in an occult sense of "proper elements of spirits" or "ultra-rarified water," which was van Helmont's definition of gas. The sound of Dutch "g" is roughly equivalent to that of Greek "kh." First used by Flemish chemist J.B. The sense evolved by 2016 to also mean "dismiss or discredit someone's viewpoint."ġ650s, from Dutch gas, probably from Greek khaos "empty space" (see chaos). … I had been told that my tonsillectomy was “not that bad” or that the dentist whose hands were between my legs was “fixing my teeth,” … My own favorite embodiment of this horror, still enjoyed by late-show insomniacs, is the 1944 film Gaslight, a tale which so impressed the public imagination that even today the word “gaslight” is used to describe an attempt to destroy another’s perceptions of reality and, ultimately, sanity itself. The word seems to have received a boost in feminist literature in late 1970s. Brian: And then what? Paula: Well, then, I think I hear things. At last I can tell this to someone! Every night when my husband goes out… Brian: …The light goes down? Paula: Yes. But every night, I’ve been all over the house, there’s never been another light turned on. Paula: Oh, then it really happens! I thought I imagined it! Brian: But all it means is someone else has turned it on. Paula: You saw that too! Brian: Why, yes. Is there anyone else in the house now, except us and Elizabeth? Paula: No. Among the observable clues has been the dimming of their home's gaslighting whenever (as she later learns) the husband goes secretly into the attic: he has convinced her that she is imagining this, until a family friend sees it, too, which confirms the clue that uncovers the crime. It is later revealed that her criminal husband has been convincing her that she is insane in order to discredit her observations of his activities. This sense is from the 1944 film Gaslight, in which a 19th century woman (played by Ingrid Bergman, who won an Academy Award) appears to be going mad. Related: Gas-lighted gas-lighting gaslighting.Īs a verb meaning "to deliberately make a person believe that they are insane," by 1961, perhaps 1956. Used through the 19th and into the early 20th century as street and domestic lighting. Also gas-light, "light, or a provision for light, produced by combustion of coal gas a gas-jet," 1808, from (illuminating) gas (n.1) + light (n.).
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