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> People assume that renting out property is rent-seeking literally only because they both have the word rent in them.

It's not a coincidence that they have the same word in them. It's literally just the same word with the same definition and etymology in both cases. Rent is a payment demanded by property owners from people who want to make productive use of that property.

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But rent-seeking isn't renting. They're different terms that don't have anything to do with each anymore.

> Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating public policy or economic conditions without creating new wealth. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking)

This definition doesn't overlap with renting.

I blame econonists for reusing the same word to mean different things.

The term has been generalized in economics to refer to more cases than just rent paid to live on or farm a piece of land.

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