Oxford’s Word of the Year Differs From Merriam-Webster Choice

About a week after Merriam-Webster announced their word of the year, the Oxford English Dictionary has revealed theirs.

As I noted when I shared the Merriam-Webster results, I don't find myself using these words very often. Of course, when I do use any of them my kids ask me to stop immediately. Especially the slang words.

The word wizards at the Oxford University Press have declared one word has stood out and landed at the top of the list as the 2023 Word of the Year. The word is "rizz"

Rizz is defined as "style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner," is "believed to be a shortened form of the word charisma," the publishers noted, adding the noun "can also be used as a verb, in phrases such as 'to rizz up,' which means 'to attract, seduce, or chat up a person."

Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" hilariously pointed out that "if you need to look it up, you ain't got it." Rizz was also on the Merriam-Webster list, but wasn't the number one word for them.

The publisher says 30,000 language lovers around the world gave suggestions for this year's big word. Then after reviewing all of those submissions to just eight, rizz was finally chosen.

They do the same way every year. All eight finalists were pitted against each other in head-to-head heats. The results found that "Swiftie" beat "de-influencing"; "situationship" topped "parasocial"; "prompt" won against the meteorological-based "heat dome"; and finally, "beige flag" was topped by "rizz."

Out of the finalists, rizz was deemed the word most able to "reflect the mood, ethos, or preoccupations of the year."

Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said in the announcement, "Given that last year 'goblin mode' resonated with so many of us following the pandemic, it's interesting to see a contrasting word like rizz come to the forefront. Perhaps speaking to a prevailing mood of 2023 where more of us are opening ourselves up after a challenging few years and finding confidence in who we are."