All that rizz, Daddyo!

The Oxford English Dictionary - and who or what would know better? - recently declared rizz the Word of the Year for 2023. 

Rizz is not a word I've ever used, but I can imagine doing so at some point. Likely once it's found it's way to into the public domain after Gen Z has dumped it and left it to us Boomers. 

If you're not familiar with rizz, which may or may not be rooted in charisma, the word means:

....style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner," according to the Oxford University Press. (Source: NPR)

There's also some thinking that rizz can (also) mean game, as in you got game. (For this Boomer, the word brings to mind Ratso Rizzo, the creepy, pathetic character played by Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy.)

Either way, as words go, rizz may not slay*, but it's fine. I might have gone with one of the nominated, runner up words: Swiftie (Taylor Swift fan). Because, seriously, all hail Taylor Swift. 

Other words in contention were situationship ("an undefined romantic relationship") and de-influencing (the opposite of influencing; instead of urging people to buy something, a de-influencer urges people not to buy it). I'd never heard either of these words. (I will say I like the idea of de-influcencing. All hail, de-influencers of the world.)

Anyway, having a slang word (that would be rizz) as the word of the year - vs. a not-so-slangy coinage like de-influencing - got me thinking about the slang of my youth, the 1960's and 1970's, when the Boomers were the Gen Z of our era. 

Fink. Neat. Neato. Cool. Groovy. Far out. Bummer. Bummed out. What's the skinny? Right on. Threads. Bread. Grass. Dig it. 

Fink was very popular when I was in high school, and I definitely used it. It sometimes meant ratting someone out, but mostly it was used for a suck-up, goody-two-shoes, brownnoser. Or as an all-purpose word for a jerk, used where people today might say a-hole. 

Neat and cool were also in my vocab, but I don't think I ever uttered the word neato, unless I used it with air quotes. (If we had air quotes back then. Maybe we just rolled our eyes.)

Same goes for groovy and far out. Those were words I only used sarcastically, likely when making fun of real hippies, or the fake hippies that appeared regularly as characters on Mod Squad and Dragnet. (I did use groovy when I was feelin' groovy singing along with Simon and Garfunke's 59th Street Bridge Song.)

I'm pretty sure I used bummer, and bummed out. (Still do.) My mother - no slanger, that's for sure - also used the word bummer when desribing someone (a male someone) as being at least somewhat dissolute. Wondering about this usage, I did a quick search and found that - in my mother's usage - the word came from bummler, German for loafer. Another of her drag-overs from her mamaloshen was lausbub, which is German for brat. (We thought she was saying "louse-poop", by the way.)

I don't remember using what's the skinny back in the day, but I do use it on occasion.

Although I was pretty political back in the day, I don't recall using the term right on, but I may have gotten caught up in things and shouted it out to show my approval for a speaker at some demonstration or other.

Did I use threads for clothing? I don't think so. Did I call money bread? Maybe once in a while. Did I call marijuana grass? Absolutely. Dig it? 

Dig it? Never used this term. (Other than singing along with Friends of Distinction's Grazin' in the Grass - baby, can you dig it.)

Given my spotty record of fully adopting the slang of my generation, would I have used the word rizz? Well, Daddyo, I guess the answer's yes, no, maybe.

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*Look at me, using young folks slang! Sometimes I just slay.