To Rizz or Not To Rizz

David Witzke

Around the beginning of winter break, I started to hear whispers of a new slang word. “Rizz this” and “W Rizz that” whispered the crowds of hipsters that wander around campus. On the surface, the word seems simple. Charisma gets shortened to rizz: a word that is both fun to say and easy to use.

Part of rizz’s appeal is its versatility. You can simply say that someone has “W Rizz” or perhaps refer to them as a classic character such as “the Rizzler” (the Riddler) or “The Rizzard of Oz” (the Wizard of Oz). Much of the discourse is simplified along the terms of “Homie has unspoken Rizz” which is an interesting turn from last year’s similar, but much shorter-lived slang, “Big Dick Energy.” Or to put it more eloquently, I turn to Mars’ Hill staff writer Diego Bascur, who simply posted an Instagram note that said “homie rizz,” a combination of words that theoretically have meaning but, when put together like that, simply escape me.

Yet rizz has a surprisingly complex set of definitions. The sheer fact that no one can agree on what it means, but everyone knows how to use it, is what makes it interesting. Slang is something that happens organically, and it is difficult to trace both its true meaning and origin. A general definition simply defines rizz as similar to the idiom “to have game” or as Wiktionary succinctly puts it, “one’s ability to seduce a potential (usually female) love interest.” Though a personal favourite comes from a few definitions down in Urban Dictionary and asserts that people with lots of rizz are most well known for having mem orized the script of Jerry Seinfeld’s The Bee Movie sea and fish on the table. There are also many references to “unspoken rizz” throughout culture, which seems to define this type of rizz as more specifically unknown sexual allure than any specific game. Unfortunately, the term is also coated with a thin veil of misogyny; the fact that a fishing metaphor works so aptly should be a slight tip-off that this term commodifies both relationships and people. It reduces the complex interpersonal relationships of people down to numbers and removes personalities from bodies in an almost frightening manner.

Just as difficult as it is to parse what rizz actually means, it is also difficult to determine exactly where rizz has come from. Multiple sources online draw the term’s origin to a YouTuber and Streamer known as Kai Cenat who first used the word. One Urban Dictionary definition claims that Cenat’s editor from Baltimore adapted Baltimore street slang. Yet, popular internet meme dictionary Know Your Meme claims rizz as Cenat’s New York street slang. Cenat certainly helped popularize rizz, but it is highly unlikely that there will ever be a definitive answer as to who originally created the word. It has been diffused into culture so much that no one really owns rizz anymore. It has simply entered the English lexicon. Some people will use it as a replacement for confidence or seductive allure. To crudely put it, there is no distinction with rizz between catching fish and simply attracting fish. Yet as any fisherman knows, there is quite a large distinction between fish in the