For all the gen Z slang that has been thrown around by politicians in recent months, one term has been largely absent from the election campaign: “rizz”. Oxford University Press’s 2023 word of the year is defined as “style, charm or attractiveness”; in gen Z parlance it refers specifically to romantic appeal.
On the campaign trail, neither major party leader, thankfully, has deployed the term to cringeworthy effect. But a trait to which rizz is inextricably linked – charisma – has historically been linked to electoral victory.
