‘Rizz’ is the word

This year, former Malacañang occupant Rodrigo R. Duterte obviously lost his "rizz."

How's that for a naughty clickbait prelude on where I intend to go with "rizz," Oxford English Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2023? Hopefully, you'll tag along.

Before anything else, however, "rizz" is the Gen Z slang referring to "style, charm or attractiveness" or "the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner."

 "Rizz" is a social media wildfire — the TikTok hashtag #rizz reached over 13 billion views at one point — and has apparently coopted mainstream vocabulary that Oxford took notice of.

In its wake, "rizz" also pummeled other popular zeitgeist words like "prompt" (in the sense of guiding an AI query) and "Swiftie" (a fan of pop superstar Taylor Swift).

If you're asking what "rizz" really portends, you're not alone. Despite the massive reach of TikTok among Filipinos, Filipino Gen Z and celebrities and social media influencers aren't sure what it really means either.

We can lose our way of talking about what makes for "style, charm or attractiveness" insofar as "a person's wordless ability to seduce a love interest with body gestures and facial expressions alone." But it's "rizz's" etymology that piqued my interest.

Oxford says it's believed "rizz" had been derived from the middle of charisma.

Now, charisma allows us old-timers comfort since we obviously know what charisma means. But do we really? In fact, charisma is one of the most overused yet least understood words in English.

Of course, it's natural for a word related to charm and mystique to resist explanation, leading to abject confusion.

But here I go along with reputed German sociologist Max Weber, who, more than anybody else, took pains thinking about charisma.

Weber theorized that charisma was an obscure religious concept featured in the New Testament writings of Paul to describe figures like Jesus and Moses who'd been imbued with God's power or grace. Paul had borrowed it from the Ancient Greek word "charis," which generally denoted someone blessed with the gift of grace.

Weber, however, thought charisma shouldn't be restricted to Christianity. Instead, he believes charisma is a far wider social phenomenon, echoing throughout culture and politics, past and present.

Weber, nonetheless, disagreed with the modern pedestrian understanding that charisma solely concerns individuals.

Weber insisted charisma isn't about the individual alone and theorized that charisma is only valid if it's more about the reflection of that power by an audience.

Charisma, then, like love or beauty, is probably in the eye of the beholder: intoxicating love and belief enacted on a mass scale during particular historical circumstances.

Specifically, that tells us that in the social and political realm, a person has charisma only if they can emotionally evoke and harness the unconscious of his followers.

This, in turn, means a charismatic individual must enact the people's will, or their charismatic appeal vanishes.

Historical circumstances can also play a massive role in charisma, for instance, in times of crisis, confusion, and complexity, when our faith in traditional and rational institutions collapses, most tend to look for salvation and redemption in certain individuals, even if that individual turns out crazed.

So much so that as these charismatic irrational individuals flaunt and break the ordinary existing social and political norms and values — like when publicly cursing or airing death threats — or their followers still see them as extraordinary and thrust them to power on a passionate wave of emotion.

Doesn't that remind you of the Duterte years?

Nonetheless, the chosen charismatic individual is actually subordinate when there's someone else on the throne and is subsequently subjected to pruning by the current powers.

Charisma then loses its power. And, we suddenly see how a person who previously provoked such fascination is just another politically troubled individual, much as many nowadays see the once "charismatic" Duterte.