Etymology: In the ’80s, “adulting” was used, according to Merriam-Webster, “as a jocular verbal form of the noun adultery.” By the late aughties, Twitter users had begun to use it in its current incarnation—to describe adults doing the quotidian tasks that adults are expected to do.

Meaning: Although adulting has appeared on social media since 2008, it arguably entered the mainstream through the work of American writer Kelly Williams Brown and her book Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps. In 2014, it was added to the Urban Dictionary and has been popping up with increasing frequency, employed by brands including AmEx and Amazon, ever since.

Fortunately, adulting has stayed largely online. Rarely spoken, it often appears in tweets such as: “Adulting is...