Green-lit or greenlighted? Gaslighted or gaslit?
Here’s how to tell which past tense to use
A RECENT ARTICLE in The Economist on Germany’s coalition talks was given the headline “Green-lit”. Elsewhere, though, we have reported that ventures were “greenlighted”. Another new verb is subject to the same confusion: to “gaslight”—to try to make someone think they are losing their mind and should not believe their own eyes—has two past-tense forms. A search of the web turns up hundreds of thousands of results for both “gaslighted” and “gaslit”.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Double trouble”
From the November 13th 2021 edition
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