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This economics meaning of "rent" is confusing to laypeople because it differs from the lay meaning of "rent" (tenant's regular payment to a landlord for the use of property or land)!

Because "rent" is such a popular word, why do economists still use it? Why not coin a different term to avoid ambiguity?

Rent Seeking - Econlib

But why do economists use the term “rent”? Unfortunately, there is no good reason. David Ricardo introduced the term “rent” in economics. It means the payment to a factor of production in excess of what is required to keep that factor in its present use. So, for example, if I am paid \$150,000 in my current job but I would stay in that job for any salary over \$130,000, I am making \$20,000 in rent.

  • Have you ever tried coining a word to replace a widely used word...? – Giskard May 27 '21 at 07:55
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  • This Q is opinion based so it is closed. 2. Point of any scientific terminology is to be precise, real world languages constantly change, if scientific terminology would constantly change it would be impossible to synthesize research. Physics also has special terminology for words like work, force, inflation etc that has little to do with what laymen understand as work, force, inflation etc. so do all other sciences. That is no accident common English is ambiguous, context depended and imprecise, you can’t do science without development of special taxonomy and nomenclature for each field
    • – 1muflon1 May 27 '21 at 08:39