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As 2023 comes to a close, we look back not only at the things we talked about all year, but also how we talked about them. Nothing encapsulates this as well as the Oxford Word of the Year, selected via public vote and the insight of a team of language experts. For 2023, the Word of the Year is “rizz,” a noun defined as “style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.”
Oxford University Press, which organizes the voting, writes: “2023 marked the era of personal—and professional—PR. And what does it take to command attention? A whole lot of charisma, or the shortened form, ‘rizz.’ Pertaining to someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness, this term is from the middle part of the word ‘charisma,’ which is an unusual word formation pattern. Other examples include ‘fridge’ (refrigerator) and ‘flu’ (influenza).”
According to the Oxford Monitor Corpus of English, the world barely began widespread usage in late 2022, before peaking in summer 2023. The term seems to have been carried to victory by actor Tom Holland. In June 2023, the Spider-Man star was asked in a Buzzfeed interview about the secret to his rizz, to which he answered, “I have no rizz whatsoever, I have limited rizz. My brother Paddy has ultimate rizz.”
“One of the reasons it’s moving from being a niche social media phrase into the mainstream is, it’s just fun to say,” Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, told The New York Times. “When it comes off your tongue, there’s a little bit of joy that comes with it.”
On the way to becoming the 2023 Word of the Year, “rizz” beat out a group of finalists that also reflect the main stories of the year. The terms that almost made it to the top were “prompt,” an instruction given to an AI programs, algorithms, etc., which determines or influences the content it generates; “situationship,” a mix of “situation” and “relationship” that captures a romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established; and “swiftie,” a term to describe an enthusiastic fan of Taylor Swift.
While 2022 Word of the Year, “goblin mode” seems to have fizzled out, the 2018 winner, “toxic,” seems to remain strong and commonplace. Only time will tell if rizz, used mainly by Gen Zers, gets to maintain its hold on popular culture.
The 2023 Oxford Word of the Year is “rizz,” defined as “style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.”
The term seems to have been carried to victory by Tom Holland. In June 2023, the actor was asked about the secret to his rizz, to which he answered, “I have no rizz whatsoever, I have limited rizz.”
Photo: imagepressagency/Depositphotos
h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]
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