From the New York Times:
By Jennifer Schuessler
Dec. 3, 2023
It’s official. Oxford University Press, the world’s second-oldest academic press and the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has rizz.
Or at least, like the rest of us over a certain age, it’s trying to get some. “Rizz” — Gen Z (or is it Gen Alpha?) slang for “style, charm or attractiveness,” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner” — has been named as Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year, beating out contenders like situationship, prompt, de-influencing and (yes) Swiftie.
“Rizz,” a shortened form of “charisma,” emerged out of internet and gaming culture, according to Oxford, and was popularized in 2022 by the YouTube and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, who posted “rizz tips” videos online. It went viral in June, after the actor Tom Holland, in an interview with Buzzfeed, said: “I have no rizz whatsoever. I have limited rizz.”
That spawned a crush of memes, as overall usage surged by a factor of about 15 over the previous year, according to Oxford’s data. Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Languages, the dictionary division, said that this year’s choice reflects the way social media has increased the pace of language change exponentially. Plus, he said, the word simply has … rizz.
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“One of the reasons it’s moving from being a niche social media phrase into the mainstream is, it’s just fun to say,” he said. “When it comes off your tongue, there’s a little bit of joy that comes with it.”
Oxford’s Word of the Year is based on usage evidence drawn from its continually updated corpus of more than 22 billion words, gathered from news sources across the English-speaking world. The selection, according to Oxford, is meant “to reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations” of the preceding year, while also having “potential as a term of lasting cultural significance.”
Usually, Oxford’s lexicographers assemble a shortlist of words or expressions that saw a statistically relevant surge, and then choose a winner. But in recent years, Oxford has turned the selection process into the lexicographical version of a reality show.
Last year, Oxford let the public vote on three finalists. (“Goblin mode” came out on top, because 2022.) This year, the public was invited to cut the shortlist list in half by weighing in on four head-to-head thematic pairings. (Some 30,000 people voted, Oxford said.) Oxford’s team then made the final selection.
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One pairing, “Swiftie” vs. “de-influencing,” related to celebrity culture. Others reflected personal characteristics (“rizz” vs. “beige flag,” a characteristic suggesting a partner is boring), the changing world (“prompt” vs. “heat dome”) and relationships (“parasocial” vs. “situationship”).
Grathwohl guessed, correctly, that the contest would ultimately come down to “Swiftie” vs. “rizz.” Which it did, but only after “de-influencing” (the practice of discouraging people from buying particular products, or reducing their consumption more generally) made a strong run at knocking out “Swiftie.”
As for “rizz,” Grathwohl said the word has some interesting features. Usually, shortened forms are taken from the start of a word (app, rhino) or the end (hood, bot). It’s more unusual, but not unheard of, for abbreviated forms to come from the middle (flu, fridge), he said.
He noted that “rizz” also gets used as a verb (as in to “rizz it up,” or charm someone). “As a word expands from one part of speech to another, that’s an indicator it might have some staying power,” he said.
By Jennifer Schuessler
Dec. 3, 2023
It’s official. Oxford University Press, the world’s second-oldest academic press and the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has rizz.
Or at least, like the rest of us over a certain age, it’s trying to get some. “Rizz” — Gen Z (or is it Gen Alpha?) slang for “style, charm or attractiveness,” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner” — has been named as Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year, beating out contenders like situationship, prompt, de-influencing and (yes) Swiftie.
“Rizz,” a shortened form of “charisma,” emerged out of internet and gaming culture, according to Oxford, and was popularized in 2022 by the YouTube and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, who posted “rizz tips” videos online. It went viral in June, after the actor Tom Holland, in an interview with Buzzfeed, said: “I have no rizz whatsoever. I have limited rizz.”
That spawned a crush of memes, as overall usage surged by a factor of about 15 over the previous year, according to Oxford’s data. Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Languages, the dictionary division, said that this year’s choice reflects the way social media has increased the pace of language change exponentially. Plus, he said, the word simply has … rizz.
ADVERTISEMENT
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“One of the reasons it’s moving from being a niche social media phrase into the mainstream is, it’s just fun to say,” he said. “When it comes off your tongue, there’s a little bit of joy that comes with it.”
Oxford’s Word of the Year is based on usage evidence drawn from its continually updated corpus of more than 22 billion words, gathered from news sources across the English-speaking world. The selection, according to Oxford, is meant “to reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations” of the preceding year, while also having “potential as a term of lasting cultural significance.”
Usually, Oxford’s lexicographers assemble a shortlist of words or expressions that saw a statistically relevant surge, and then choose a winner. But in recent years, Oxford has turned the selection process into the lexicographical version of a reality show.
Last year, Oxford let the public vote on three finalists. (“Goblin mode” came out on top, because 2022.) This year, the public was invited to cut the shortlist list in half by weighing in on four head-to-head thematic pairings. (Some 30,000 people voted, Oxford said.) Oxford’s team then made the final selection.
ADVERTISEMENT
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One pairing, “Swiftie” vs. “de-influencing,” related to celebrity culture. Others reflected personal characteristics (“rizz” vs. “beige flag,” a characteristic suggesting a partner is boring), the changing world (“prompt” vs. “heat dome”) and relationships (“parasocial” vs. “situationship”).
Grathwohl guessed, correctly, that the contest would ultimately come down to “Swiftie” vs. “rizz.” Which it did, but only after “de-influencing” (the practice of discouraging people from buying particular products, or reducing their consumption more generally) made a strong run at knocking out “Swiftie.”
As for “rizz,” Grathwohl said the word has some interesting features. Usually, shortened forms are taken from the start of a word (app, rhino) or the end (hood, bot). It’s more unusual, but not unheard of, for abbreviated forms to come from the middle (flu, fridge), he said.
He noted that “rizz” also gets used as a verb (as in to “rizz it up,” or charm someone). “As a word expands from one part of speech to another, that’s an indicator it might have some staying power,” he said.
