<img style="float: left;" src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2023/dec/Rahul-op_e.jpg" alt="Rahul Da Cunha" width="200" height="69" />My 19-year-old neighbour <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/lobo-lobo-fuss-day-fuss-show-frent-row-23324205" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Natasha aka Nats</a>, strode through my door, generational cockiness writ large on her face.
&ldquo;Rahul bruh, sup yo?&rdquo;&nbsp;
I knew that &lsquo;sup&rsquo; was short for &ldquo;wassup?&rdquo; and that it didn&rsquo;t require an answer.&nbsp;
&ldquo;So dude, you read that Oxford has chosen &lsquo;rizz&rsquo; as Word of the Year, over &lsquo;Swiftie&rsquo;?&rdquo;
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re telling me that the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/himalayan-blunder-23322972" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Oxford Dictionary</a> is now dishing out prizes for words?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Not dishing, fam, this is serious shit&hellip; the best word for the year is picked from over 40,000 options, the tradition&rsquo;s been there for years.&rdquo;
&ldquo;And the best word they&rsquo;ve chosen for 2023 is &lsquo;rizz&rsquo;? What does &lsquo;rizz&rsquo; even mean?&rdquo; (double eye roll)
&ldquo;Well bruh&hellip; it&rsquo;s kinda taken from the centre section of &nbsp;&lsquo;charisma&rsquo;.&rdquo;
&ldquo;So how&rsquo;s it used in a sentence?&rdquo;
&ldquo;&rsquo;That guy has serious &lsquo;rizz&rsquo;&rsquo;, it means he has style&hellip; or attractiveness!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Jeez that&rsquo;s like &lsquo;fridge&rsquo; from refrigerator&mdash;how can they award abbreviations for stuff like that?&rdquo;
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a super cool word, abbreviated or not, Mr Old Fashioned&hellip; wanna hear some &lsquo;rizz&rsquo; lines?&rdquo; (I nodded)
&ldquo;I always thought happiness started with the letter H, but my happiness starts with U&rdquo;, &ldquo;Do you like football? My favourite is Ronaldo&hellip; but we can get Messi!&rdquo;,
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re so hot I forgot my pickup line&rdquo;, &ldquo;You got no paper, no pencil, but you&rsquo;re still <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/dear-rahul-23321805" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">drawing my attention</a>!&rdquo; Nats reeled off.
&ldquo;Wow, those are cheesy lines.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Rahul bruh, why are you being so close minded? Dude&hellip; be cool.&rdquo;
&ldquo;On another note, what&rsquo;s &lsquo;Swiftie&rsquo;?&hellip; is that like &lsquo;Usain Bolt is a &lsquo;Swiftie&rsquo;?&rdquo; I asked ironically, &ldquo;or is a &lsquo;Swiftie&rsquo; someone who loves Jonathan Swift, the author of Gullivers Travels?&rdquo;
Humour was most often lost on my Gen Z spit-fire.
&ldquo;No, no Swifties are fans of Taylor Swift,&rdquo; Nats corrected me.
&ldquo;And so when Taylor Swift loses popularity, like all modern day musicians eventually do, will the word &lsquo;Swiftie&rsquo; go out of the dictionary?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Dude, you&rsquo;re really behaving like an uncle, you know! Taylor Swift is no ordinary musician, she&rsquo;s an all-time legend.&rdquo;
&ldquo;But she&rsquo;s no Beatles, Nats! Or Bob Dylan&hellip; or <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/search/Elvis-Presley-articles" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Elvis Presley</a>&hellip; she doesn&rsquo;t even have Adele&rsquo;s voice? Will &lsquo;Swiftie&rsquo; remain in Oxford after she&rsquo;s passe?&rdquo;
&lsquo;It&rsquo;s so obvio&rsquo; bro&hellip; of course she will! Anyway bruh gotta bounce!&rdquo;
And with that, Nats turned to leave.
&ldquo;Where you going, Nats, you just got here!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Gonna meet my &lsquo;bae&rsquo;&hellip; I wanna turn our &nbsp;situationship, into something more serious!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Whats a &lsquo;situationship&rsquo;?&rdquo; I asked, perplexed. (eye roll + nostril flare)
&ldquo;A situationship is a romantic relationship where there are no clear boundaries, it lacks commitment!&rdquo;
&lsquo;That&rsquo;s an oxymoron.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Dude don&rsquo;t call me a moron, got it!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Ufff, Natasha&hellip;. an oxymoron is a figure of speech.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Okay okay got it!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Anyway this guy that you&rsquo;re maybe or may not be in a situationship with, what&rsquo;s &lsquo;he&rsquo; like?&rdquo; (triple eye roll)
&ldquo;Dude&hellip; he&rsquo;s not a &lsquo;he&rsquo;?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Oh I&rsquo;m so sorry, Natasha&hellip; look no judgements. if you&rsquo;re&hellip;&rdquo;
&ldquo;Dude..I meant, he&rsquo;s not a pure &lsquo;he&rsquo;, we don&rsquo;t believe in gender pronouns, we&rsquo;re non binary. Depends on the day, depends on his mood,&nbsp; sometimes he&rsquo;s &lsquo;she&rsquo;, sometimes he&rsquo;s &lsquo;they&rsquo;, sometimes he&rsquo;s &lsquo;them&rsquo;.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Jeez why must your generation complicate everything&hellip; why must everything have these nonsense caveats.&rdquo; I want a romantic partner but there has to be boundaries&rsquo;&mdash;I&rsquo;m guessing &lsquo;situationhip&rsquo; is this just the same word for what our generation calls an &lsquo;open relationship&rsquo;?&rdquo;
&ldquo;No no no it&rsquo;s exclusive but&hellip;&rdquo;
&ldquo;But can you not see that the presence of the word &lsquo;situation&rsquo; in the word, gives it a flippant, pick- up aspect to it, we&rsquo;re here in a situation so lets have a &lsquo;thing&rsquo;&hellip; but tomorrow morning, like ships that pass in the night.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Dude why you getting so &lsquo;emo&rsquo;?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Emo&mdash;what&rsquo;s &lsquo;emo&rsquo;.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Emotional, dude&hellip; chillax man&hellip; it&rsquo;s all good. Anyway, I think you got up weird today. I&rsquo;ll &lsquo;vibe-check&rsquo; you tomorrow&hellip;&rdquo;
&ldquo;Okay Nats&hellip; ciao. By the way&hellip; today, you&rsquo;re looking like a wow!&rdquo; I said coolly.
Nats smiled.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m off to embrace my inner goblin, Rahul bruh,&rdquo; she concluded.
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com
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“And the best word they’ve chosen for 2023 is ‘rizz’? What does ‘rizz’ even mean?” (double eye roll)

You’ve got ‘rizz’

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You’ve got ‘rizz’

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