A.Word.A.Day --rentier

A.Word.A.Day

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Jan 2, 2019

This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
fabulist
numpty
rentier
fink
swellhead

Rentier relaxing in Hanover
In German, a reindeer is known as a Rentier. Presumably, reindeer in Germany live off the land, renting it out to other grazing animals

Photo: Zweer de Bruin

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

rentier

PRONUNCIATION:

(ran-TYAY)

[the first syllable is nasal]

MEANING:

noun: A person who lives on income from rent, interest, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French rentier (a person of independent means), from rente (private income). Earliest documented use: 1650.

USAGE:

“It is she, the landlady, who makes the observation from her situation as the comfortable rentier.”
Ann Blake; Christina Stead’s Politics of Place; University of Western Australia Press; 1999.

See more usage examples of rentier in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (2 Jan 1920-1992)

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