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Parenting
(n.)
The everyday magic of handing a parenting task to technology and getting a result that no previous generation could imagine.
She wondered how her parents had coped without the outsourcery of the lullaby playlist that adapts to her baby's heartbeat.
Does it ring true?
From the future, or already here?
Outsource + sorcery. A sorcerer is Latin sortiarius, “one who casts lots to influence fate”; parenting is the ultimate fate-shaping. Parents can now summon help nearly instantly, but as the ancient folklore tale of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice warned, the chore done by magic is one you never learn to do, and so can’t control.
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.