A person who has the natural style, charm, or attractiveness, or has the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner is called someone having charisma - or in Gen Z lingo, "rizz."
In the pursuit of constant development of the English language, the Oxford University Press has selected "rizz" as its 2023 Word of the Year.
"Rizz is a term that has boomed on social media and speaks to how language that enjoys intense popularity and currency within particular social communities—and even in some cases lose their popularity and become passé-can bleed into the mainstream," Oxford Languages president Casper Grathwohl said in an announcement on Monday (December 4).
Other Shortlisted Words
While "rizz" topped the Oxford list, seven others were included in the shortlist, with the press saying its selection reflected the "mood, ethos, or preoccupations of the past year."
Time reported that over 30,000 members of the public voted across four days to create a shortlist.
Other words that competed for the top spot included "Swiftie," which alluded to Taylor Swift fans, especially at the back of the current success of her Eras Tour; "prompt," an instruction input into artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT; and "situationship," an informal romantic connection that has not been properly defined.
"De-influencing," "beige flag," "situationship," and "parasocial" complete the top eight in the shortlist.
How Did 'Rizz' Came About?
First emerging as slang in 2022, "rizz" was popularized in June this year by English actor Tom Holland when he used the word in a viral Buzzfeed interview. In the interview, the actor said he had a "limited rizz" compared to his brother who had "ultimate rizz."
"It definitely helps when the characters you're playing are falling in love with one another," he added, pertaining to his relationship with Spiderman co-star Zendaya. "You can sort of blur the lines a little bit."
Oxford compared the evolution of "rizz" from "charisma" to the commonly used words like "fridge" and "flu," isolations of embedded syllables from refrigerator and influenza, respectively.
"This is a story as old as language itself, but stories of linguistic evolution and expansion that used to take years can now take weeks or months," Grathwohl added. "The spike in usage data for rizz goes to prove that words and phrases that evolve from internet culture are increasingly becoming part of day-to-day vernacular and will continue to shape language trends in the future."
