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Health
(n.)
Recovery that aims not just to restore the body but to rebuild it stronger than before.
A year after the accident, his physical therapist shifted the goal to revalescence: getting back to "normal" wasn't ambitious enough.
Does it ring true?
From the future, or already here?
A nineteenth-century word which drifted out of use, from the Latin valere meaning to be strong or well. The related word convalescence means growing back to your old baseline, while revalescence echoes the re- in revitalize and renew: coming back stronger.
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.