Frequent users of social media have probably come across the term ‘Rizz,’ a trendy Internet slang used to convey charm or style. This word has gained immense popularity globally, leading Oxford University Press to officially declare ‘rizz’ as the Word of the Year for 2023.
In a press release, Oxford said, ‘This year, we created a shortlist of eight words, all chosen to reflect the mood, ethos, or preoccupations of the past year, and put them to the public to vote for their favourites. Through head-to-head competitions over a four-day voting period, the public narrowed down our shortlist of worthy contenders to four finalists: Rizz, Swiftie, Prompt, and Situationship. These words were then put to our language experts, who considered our corpus data, the vote counts, and the public commentary around the words to choose the definitive word of the year for 2023’.
Oxford University Press explains that this word originates from the abbreviation of ‘charisma,’ extracted from its middle portion, showcasing an unusual pattern in word formation.
The university added, ‘Our language experts chose Rizz as an interesting example of how language can be formed, shaped, and shared within communities, before being picked up more widely in society. It speaks to how younger generations now have spaces, online or otherwise, to own and define the language they use. From activism to dating and wider culture, as Gen Z comes to have more impact on society, differences in perspectives and lifestyle play out in language, too.’
Well, we all know the Internet is an interesting space and since then users on X have had some greats reactions to the ‘word of the year’.
One user posted, ‘Word of the year in English is Rizz Use it in a sentence: ‘Boys have rizz, men have mojo’.
Another user posted, ‘Rizz is Oxford’s word of the year, and I was today years old when I found out that it comes from ‘charisma’.