C1 · 35 words

Providing for retirement

What somebody lives on once the salary stops arriving.

Die Leibrente looks as though it had something to do with the body, and an English reader who knows der Leib will hesitate over it. In present-day German der Leib is the body, a slightly elevated word beside the everyday der Körper, heard in phrases such as am eigenen Leib, first hand. In older German the same noun meant life itself, and it is the same word as English « life »: both go back to one Germanic noun. English kept the life; German let the word drift towards the body and left life to das Leben. The compound held on to the older sense, so eine Leibrente is exactly what its parts once said, an annuity for life, paid until the person it is tied to dies. Read the first half the old way and the word translates itself. It stands on this list beside verrenten, the verb for turning a sum of money into one.

The words

Verb (3)

hinzuverdienento earn extra (alongside a pension)VerbC1

Viele Rentner möchten mit einem Minijob etwas hinzuverdienen.Many pensioners would like to earn a little extra with a mini-job.

Separable: sie verdient etwas hinzu. The noun is der Hinzuverdienst.

verrentento convert into an annuityVerbC2

Bei Rentenbeginn wird das angesparte Kapital verrentet.When the pension starts, the capital that has been saved is converted into an annuity.

Regular. Colloquially also to pension somebody off: jemanden frühzeitig verrenten.

beziehento draw (a pension or benefit)VerbC1

Seit dem Frühjahr bezieht er eine Altersrente und arbeitet trotzdem zwei Tage in der Woche.He has been drawing an old-age pension since the spring and still works two days a week.

Irregular: bezog, bezogen. Also: eine Wohnung beziehen, to move into a flat.

This list belongs to Work, money and trade — 47 lists and 1883 words that can also be practised as a whole.

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