Rizz is the word

I love words. Big ones, little ones, made-up ones, silly ones. And I do love a clever portmanteau (spork!) and forever strive to omit needless words, thanks to the advice of my beloved style guys, Strunk and White. Words have been my meal ticket for as long as I can remember. So, when the Oxford English Dictionary names its word of the year for 2023, I pay attention.

This year, however, I had no idea what the chosen word meant. In fact, I felt a little left out. Or, more to the point, simply out of it.

Gen Z, I ain’t, but really, I’m not thaaat old, am I? Am I? OK, a generation or two or three or five.

Aside: For those who missed the memo, members of Generation Z years were born between 1997 and 2012. They are known as the first fully “digitally native” generation who grew up with social media and smartphones and will never, ever give up their phones unless you threaten them with a cheap data plan or disinheritance. Maybe.

I recently learned that my PhD-educated physical therapist was a mere 32. She seems older and wiser, but still. Thirty-two? I have sweaters that old.

Anyway, when investigating pop culture references that I have no earthly idea about, I go straight to the source: my great-nephews and great-nieces.

In this case, the oldest teens in town who are still on holiday break. I texted them after noon on a weekday:

Me: “Olah. Do either of you Einsteins know what ‘rizz’ is?

Within 10 minutes, I had my answer from 14-year-old Andrew in the form of a screen snap he had googled online. Because why waste time typing a text to your favorite aunt when you have more pressing things to do? Like watching YouTube. Right.

It was from dictionary.com’s lexicographer Heather Bonikowski, whoever she is. Here’s what it said:

According to the website, rizz is a slang term for skill in charming or seducing a potential romantic partner. It is most commonly applied in the context of men pursuing women, but not always. It’s typically used in the exact same way as the older slang term “game.”

Eesh! No wonder the young man didn’t text me back. Poor, kid.

Now “game” I get. As in, s/he’s got game. But rizz? Apparently, it’s been used in dating videos as far back as … 2021. Sigh.

Another interesting find: Rizz is thought to be a shortening of the word charisma, as in the second syllable. Linguists find this occurrence fascinating because most slang terms come from the shortening of an existing word’s first or last syllable.

As in “suss,” which comes from the word suspect and means suspicious. I know this also because of my great-nieces and nephews. “You are being pretty suss right now, bruh.”

But rarely does a middle syllable form a slang term.

I’m trying to think of one, but my mind is mush. Tick, tock. (I’d like to phone a friend. Miriam?)

Back to my initial point of posting this blog. Rizz. Word of the year and all that.

Oxford language experts selected rizz from a pool of eight words, weighing their cultural and linguistic heft with more than 32,000 votes from the public on social media and the Oxford Languages website. The word beat out prompt (in the sense of guiding an Artificial Intelligence query) and Swiftie (a Taylor Swift fan).

The only rizz I recall was named Betty, as in Rizzo, in the movie, “Grease” from 1978. That’s the year I graduated from high school. (Jeez, I am old.)

Played by actress Stockard Channing, Betty was known simply as “Rizzo.” As leader of the Pink Ladies girl gang, she was the group’s “bad girl.”

Tough and sarcastic. Smoked and drank. And didn’t care what others thought of her. Betty Rizzo was a bad ass. (That’s her holding a cigarette in the main image above. And yeah, that’s Olivia Newton-John on the left and John Travolta on the right. They were young once, too.)

And she definitely had rizz.

I suppose the next question about this word of the year business is whether you have it or not. Got rizz? I think I do, or at least I believe that I have had it in the not-too-distant past.

Then again, that could be pretty suss, bruh.