Speccie reader Reona writes to ask where the expression ‘peppercorn rent’ comes from. Well, there once was a time when rents and other payments could really be made using peppercorns. From the ancient world up until the Middle Ages peppercorns were highly prized as one of the rare spices. As a commodity they were almost (weight for weight) as valuable as gold. Black pepper is native to South and Southeast Asia, and to reach Europe peppercorns were traded over long distances. In this context, if a landowner (perhaps a noble lord) wished to give a friend or relative a nominal rent it would be set at the symbolic rate of a single peppercorn. And that’s the source of a ‘peppercorn rent’.

Emeritus Professor Gary Martin (formerly CEO of the Australian Institute of Management) appears to be the source of a new economic expression. He gets a gold star stamped on his wrist for having coined ‘the grandparent economy’. The phrase means that grandparents are making a significant economic contribution in what is called the ‘care sector’. Martin quotes a national survey of 2,000 parents from last year which revealed more than half of those surveyed rely on some form of grandparent care. The survey was conducted by the ANU’s Centre for Social Research. Grandparents now supply babysitting, then childcare (as the grandchildren get older), part-time chauffeuring, after school supervision and emergency care. The term ‘the grandparent economy’ says Martin, refers to the informal, unpaid care and support that allows modern family life – and the broader economy – to keep functioning. So far, ‘grandparent economy’ is not listed in any of the major dictionaries – not even in the online Urban Dictionary that is often ahead of the curve on new expressions. So, will it one day make it into the dictionaries? Has Gary Martin made a permanent contribution to the English language? As I have explained so often it is usage that determines which new words make it into the dictionaries. So, if others see value in Martin’s coinage, and take it up and start using it, then (and only then) will it make it into the lists of the big dictionaries.

For many years now we’ve been hearing the word ‘activist’. It often refers to those mindless buffoons who block public roads to stop the rest of us going about our business. They seem to think that if they do this they will persuade the rest of us to agree with them. They seem to think that we’ll sit in our cars quietly fuming, whilst being persuaded to change our minds. ‘Ah yes,’ we’ll think, ‘these dear people who are blocking the public highway must be right and I’ll support their cause from now on.’ Except, it doesn’t quite work like that, does it? We suspect they are gluing themselves to the road because they have no idea how to mount an intelligent argument. The word ‘activist’ means ‘a person who believes strongly in political or social change and takes part in activities such as public protests to try to try to make this happen’ (Cambridge). This word first appeared in print (with this meaning) in the Atlantic Monthly in 1920. And now there is a new variation on this older word: ‘clicktivism’. This seems to go back only to 2006, and is used these days to label activist campaigners who do all their activism online – usually on social media sites. This is the crowd that piles on to anyone who disagrees with them on Instagram or X and abuses them up hill and down dale. Clearly this is the same mentality that says, ‘If I annoy people enough they’ll start agreeing with me.’ These folk are not only activists, they are lazy activists, who can manage nothing more energetic than sitting in their bedroom, on their laptop, eating donuts and abusing everyone else. Not only are these people for the most part wrong and ignorant in matters of politics, society and culture; they don’t have the faintest idea how to communicate, let alone how to persuade.