Rentsmith

Office anthropology™

The JC puts on his pith-helmet, grabs his butterfly net and a rucksack full of marmalade sandwiches, and heads into the concrete jungleIndex: Click ᐅ to expand: Work anthropology

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QUEEN: Ay, that’s a confi indeed, for he doth nothing
But talk along of his indemnities;
And he makes great appropriation to his own large part,
That he can injunct himself.
HERCULIO: Triago may be big, my Liege, but I’ll warrant
Not that big. I am much afear’d, my lady,
His mother played false with a rentsmith.

— Büchstein, Die Schweizer Heulsuse, I,ii

Rentsmith
/rɛntsmɪθ/ (n., derog.)
(also rentsmithing, rentsmithery)

1. A rent-seeking legal eagle. One who justifies one’s place in the room by wordsmithing things which are fine as they are, especially if doing do makes things worse than they were in the first place (hence, an “iatrogenicist”).

2. (v., derog.) To act as a rentsmith. To peddle celery.

3. Rentsmithee /rɛntsmɪθiː/ (n.): One obliged to render rent to a rentsmith. A client.

Rentsmith

See also