bottom currency
n.— «If she were to pay for all her transport, food and accommodation expenses when she is away from home, she would make very little profit. So to boost her profit margins, she pays using what is known as “bottom currency,” to pay off bus crews to secure seats on overcrowded buses, truck drivers to ferry bags of maize back to Hwange, and lodge owners to discount her accommodation costs.…She points out that it did not take her long to figure out that she had to sleep with the fishermen for her to get in order to meet her requirements quickly.» —“Women Forced to Give Sexual Favours to Survive” by Miriam Madziwa in Zimbabwe Fahamu (Oxford, United Kingdom) Nov. 29, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to the Tooth Fairy, tucked into a book decades ago. What stories are left untold by these forgotten...
