And Oxford's word of the year is....
December 04, 2023 19:21
Rizz, a colloquial word, which refers to style, charm, attractiveness or the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner, was announced the Word of the Year 2023 by the Oxford University Press (OUP) on Monday.
The word has been chosen from a shortlist of eight words which was prepared by the experts at OUP after examining the 19-billion-word corpus of spoken and written language data for words or expressions that have seen a spike in usage or that have been recently added to the language.
Etymologically, the term is believed to be a shortened form of the word 'charisma', taken from the middle part of the word, which is an unusual word formation pattern.
Other words on this year's shortlist were 'situationship', 'swiftie', 'beige flag', 'de-influencing', 'parasocial', 'heatdome' and 'prompt'.
Swiftie is an enthusiastic fan of the singer Taylor Swift; prompt refers to an instruction given to an artificial intelligence program or algorithm determines or influences the content it generates; and situationship refers to a romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established.
De-influencing - the practice of discouraging people from buying particular products, or of encouraging people to reduce their consumption of material goods, especially via social media.
'Rizz' was chosen by the language experts at OUP as an interesting example of how language can be formed, shaped, and shared within communities, before being picked up more widely, a statement from the publisher said.
It shows how younger generations create spaces online or in person where they 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, they said.
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