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Money
(n.)
The anguish over the windfall you almost gained, the coin you sold too soon, or the stock you never bought.
The deepest gaingst belongs to those who sold their shares only months before the IPO made the janitor a millionaire.
Does it ring true?
From the future, or already here?
Gain + angst, pronounced with the long A of gain: gayngst. Søren Kierkegaard described angst as like standing on a cliff edge, dizzy at the height and your freedom to step off. Gaingst inverts this: you’re looking up at a cliff of potential riches, haunted not by the risk of climbing it, but by not having been bold enough to try.
Future Words: A Non-Obvious Glossary of Terms That Don’t Exist (But Soon Will) collects all 100, each with its example sentence and coinage notes, from the bestselling authors of The Future Normal. Hardcover, October 20, 2026.