Every year, Oxford University reveals their Word of the Year, which highlights a word or expression that has gained in popularity throughout the past year. The words or expressions are usually meant to reflect the mood of the year and possibly make the word have more of a cultural significance. Some past ones have been “selfie” in 2013 and the laughing emoji in 2015.
In early December, Oxford finally revealed the Word of the Year for 2023: ‘rizz.’
According to Oxford University, rizz is short for the word “charisma” and it’s a noun that means “style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.” However, it can be used as a verb, like “rizzing up”, which also means the same thing: “to attract, seduce, or chat up (a person)”.
This word has had a large effect on many people, and many people want to have rizz. According to Junior Keenan Vance, he believes rizz is an important trait: “Rizz is a trait that means you attract other people effortlessly, so rizz is overall just a positive thing because it means you can attract people.”
Vance stated his views on why he thinks rizz was chosen for Word of the Year: “I think it’s become very popular this year and people didn’t use it before. It has a wide variety of uses and overall it’s a great word. It’s funny to say, too.”
The word was first used in December 2022. But later into 2023, there’s been a large spike in the usage of the word, especially in June 2023, where the frequency of the word went up to 0.5 per million tokens.
Sophomore Kaden Richards hears it a lot, emphasizing that he hears it “quite often, like everyday.”
He also explained, “I use it in a joking manner everyday as well because it’s just funny.”
However, many people believe that this word is not going to last for a while. Vance explained, “I think it will definitely lose its relevance, but it will be used in the future [overtime].”
However, Richards explained that the word is eventually going to be gone over time, addressing, “It’s going to die out. It’s just here for a little bit.”
Some also believe that it’s an important word: “Half of my jokes depend on rizz, so it’s pretty important,” Richards mentioned.
Overall, rizz might’ve been a good choice for Word of the Year because of its large usage throughout all of 2023. However, there were many other front runners, including “prompt” to emphasize the rise of AI and “situationship” to explain a “relationship that is not considered to be formal or established.” With all of these other words, was rizz the right choice for Word of the Year?
