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Leisure & Play
(n.)
A simpler, faster spin-off of a demanding sport, designed to be easier to play or watch.
Pickleball proved the power of the sportling, filling weeknight leagues with people who’d given up tennis years ago.
Does it ring true?
From the future, or already here?
Sport + -ling, the diminutive, as in duckling and sapling. Sportling itself is an obsolete word from the eighteenth century for a little creature at play; here revived for the sports themselves. Sports of all sorts are experiencing this, from T20 cricket to flag football. As populations age and attention spans shorten, many other physically intensive sports will follow this trend.
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.