[Ads-l] Facebookery: "Sally refuses to be _gaslit_."

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Ben Zimmer wrote:
> It's remarkable that "gaslighting" was considered common enough
> knowledge by then that it didn't require an explanation tying it back
> to the movie, and it's equally remarkable that the verb had already
> taken on the irregular morphology of "gaslit" for the past tense /
> past participle.

Great citation, Ben.

Maybe the term was familiar to movie and television screenplay writers
because it facilitated convenient shorthand descriptions when
discussing plot mechanics. The writers may have misjudged the
popularity/frequency of "to gaslight" in the general populace. Perhaps
"to gaslight" was largely unknown to people similar to the characters
in "Gomer Pyle, USMC" before it appeared on television.

Garson

>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 8:15 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I prefer _gaslighted_, but...
>>
>> Youneverknow.
>>
>> I grew up in the home of the Laclede Gas-Light Company, so...
>>
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org