rentier

noun

ren·​tier räⁿ-ˈtyā How to pronounce rentier (audio)
: a person who lives on income from property or securities

Examples of rentier in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Swiss zoologists, botanists, engineers, priests and nuns from missionary societies, merchants and rentier businesspeople, warlords and mercenaries ventured out to participate in plunder and looting as adjuncts or sidekicks of the stronger world powers and financiers. Percy Zvomuya, Artforum, 1 Nov. 2024 New research for this exhibition revealed Gallo to be, in fact, the son of a banker, who also studied law and lived as a rentier like Caillebotte. Sarah Belmont, ARTnews.com, 31 Oct. 2024 Saudi Arabia wants to move beyond its rentier welfare state, which, as of 2017, employed two-thirds of the country’s workforce. Bernard Haykel, Foreign Affairs, 12 Feb. 2024 The rentier reported higher revenue last quarter, up 7% from last year to $2.2 billion. Melvin Backman, Quartz, 6 Feb. 2024 As a result, the tech industry, seeking its own share of the rentier’s pie, would rather speak of novel public-private partnerships and unexpected insights garnered from parsing millions of private medical records. Jacob Silverman, The New Republic, 28 May 2021 The roots of the economic crisis are complicated, but as Hannes Baumann explains in a recent paper, the Lebanese elite has for decades pursued a form of unproductive rentier capitalism. Ryan Cooper, TheWeek, 6 Aug. 2020 After describing his multiple homes, his yacht, and his private plane, Hanauer argued that the U.S. was at risk of becoming a neo-feudalist rentier society similar to France before the Revolution. Sheelah Kolhatkar, The New Yorker, 30 Dec. 2019 However, living in fear is to lose the battle to the neo-luddites and the rentiers reluctant to change the status quo. Anirudh Rastogi, Quartz India, 3 Oct. 2019

Word History

Etymology

French, from Old French, from rente

First Known Use

1798, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of rentier was in 1798

Dictionary Entries Near rentier

Cite this Entry

“Rentier.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rentier. Accessed 7 Dec. 2024.

Legal Definition

rentier

noun
: a person who lives on income from property or securities
Etymology

French, from rente income from a property, rent

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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