Author: AFP

“Rizz” — a colloquial term defined as “style, charm, or attractiveness” — has been crowned word of the year for 2023, Oxford University Press (OUP) announced on Monday.

Its lexicographers chose “rizz”, which also conveys “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner”, from a shortlist of four words and phrases, after help from the public.

An online vote had whittled down the list from eight finalists, all selected “to reflect the mood, ethos, or preoccupations” of the year.

“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,” OUP said.

“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,” it noted.

The publisher added that the word shows the growing society-wide impact of Gen Z and how “younger generations create spaces — online or in person — where they own and define the language they use”.

The term earned mainstream recognition in June after an interviewer asked “Spider-Man” actor Tom Holland about his “rizz”.

The 27-year-old replied he had “no rizz whatsoever”.

It is the second consecutive year that the public have played a part in picking Oxford’s word of the year, after an inaugural public vote last year saw “goblin mode” prevail.

In that instance, the public were given the chance to choose the overall winner.

An overwhelming 93 percent opted for the slang term describing “unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly or greedy” behaviour.

Previous words of the year — chosen by Oxford lexicographers — include “vax” (2021), “climate emergency” (2019) and “selfie” (2013).

In the 2023 selection process, more than 30,000 word lovers helped decide head-to-head competitions between four different pairs of words or phrases.

They selected “rizz” over “beige flag” — a character trait indicating that a partner or potential partner is boring.

The other finalists were “Swiftie” (an enthusiastic Taylor Swift fan), “prompt” (an AI programme or algorithm instruction) and “situationship” (a romantic or sexual relationship not considered formal or established).

OUP said “rizz” has “boomed on social media” and shows how the internet can propel initially fringe language “into the mainstream”.

“This is a story as old as language itself, but stories of linguistic evolution and expansion that used to take years can now take weeks or months.”

Irish author Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday for his novel Prophet Song, a dystopian work about an Ireland that descends into tyranny.

The 46-year-old pipped five other shortlisted novelists to the prestigious award at a ceremony in London.

He becomes the fifth Irish writer to win the high-profile literary prize, which has propelled to fame countless household names, including past winners Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.

“This was not an easy book to write,” Lynch said after collecting his award, which comes with £50,000 (around US$63,000) and a huge boost to his profile.

“The rational part of me believed I was dooming my career by writing this novel. Though I had to write the book anyway. We do not have a choice in such matters,” he added.

Lynch’s book is set in Dublin in a near future version of Ireland. It follows the struggles of a mother of four as she tries to save her family from totalitarianism.

There are no paragraph breaks in the novel, which is Lynch’s fifth.

Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, who chaired the five-person judging panel, called the story “a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and brave”.

“With great vividness, Prophet Song captures the social and political anxieties of our current moment,” she said.

“Readers will find it soul-shattering and true, and will not soon forget its warnings.”

The Booker is open to works of fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023.

None of this year’s six finalists – which included two Americans, a Canadian, a Kenyan and another Irish author – had been shortlisted before and only one had previously been longlisted.

The shortlisted novels, announced in September, were chosen from a 13-strong longlist that had been whittled down from an initial 158 works.

Among them was Irish author Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, a tragicomic saga which looks at the role of fate in the travails of one family.

Murray was previously longlisted in 2010.

Kenyan writer Chetna Maroo’s moving debut novel Western Lane about grief and sisterhood follows the story of a teenage girl for whom squash is life.

The judges also selected If I Survive You by US writer Jonathan Escoffery, which follows a Jamaican family and their chaotic new life in Miami.

He was joined by fellow American author, Paul Harding, whose This Other Eden – inspired by historical events – tells the story of Apple Island, an enclave off the US coast where society’s misfits flock and build a new home.

Canada was represented on the shortlist in the shape of Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. The unsettling novel explores the themes of prejudice and guilt through a suspicious narrator.

The Booker was first awarded in 1969. Last year’s winner was Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

The previous Irish winners are Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright.