Definition: A person of any gender who plays an active maternal role in helping to raise children they have not physically birthed yet whom they thoughtfully and lovingly help to raise. They are non-biological chosen family who actively contribute to a constellation of care. This nurturing involves everything from helping with the everyday tasks of raising a child, to teaching, to unconditional love.
Origin: Heidi Quante & Zara Zimbardo, United States, March 2017.
Kin (Of Germanic origin; related to Dutch kunne, from an Indo-European root meaning ‘give birth to,’ shared by Greek genos and Latin genus ‘race.’)
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Cara (Latin to mean beloved)
The Bureau of Linguistical Reality 