Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Terminology: WOTTIES (1)

Monday, December 25, 2023

Terminology: WOTTIES (1) - ‘RIZZ’ OED Word of the Year 2023.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) selected ‘rizz’ as the Word of the Year (WOTY). Rizz? Yes, ‘RIZZ’! A Generation Z word, short for 'charisma'. A term used widely online, and in social media, both as a verb (e.g., 'to rizz-up', meaning to woo or seduce someone), and as a noun (e.g., "rizz is all that it takes”).

The OED notes that the abbreviation ‘rizz’ is unusual in that it is extracted from the middle of the word 'charisma', like 'fridge' for 'refrigerator' or 'flu' for 'influenza'. ‘Rizz’ also acquired its own spelling in abbreviation, independently from the term 'charisma', marking the written form of the term as a neologism.

In June 2023, the Oxford English Corpus (OEC), containing 2.1 billion words, recorded a dramatic spike in the use of the term 'rizz’, following a 30-question Buzzfeed Interview with the British actor Tom Holland (aka Spiderman). Holland responded: “I have no rizz whatsoever” to the question: “What's the secret to your rizz?.” (Aniftos, 2023)

Selection of the OED WOTY is a carefully monitored process in the hands of Oxford terminologists and lexicographers, based on an analysis of the Oxford English Corpus (OEC) trends (Oxford Staff, Nov. 30, 2023). However, since 2022, the general public has been invited to participate in the selection of the OED WOTY.

Below, the OED definition of the term ‘rizz’, announced as the Word of the Year 2023, on December 4, 2023.