Change the pagination url in Wordpress (3+) You can put in a plugin file or your functions.php.

wp-pagination-url.php

<?php

add_action( 'init', 'my_custom_page_word' );

function my_custom_page_word() {
  global $wp_rewrite;  // Get the global wordpress rewrite-rules/settings
  
  // Change the base pagination property which sets the wordpress pagination slug.
  $wp_rewrite->pagination_base = "new-slug";  //where new-slug is the slug you want to use ;)
}

@saladgoat Yeah, not sure you can (easily) have different pagination_base's for different sections.
I believe that pagination_base is more used to change the base path on the whole site. :)

@lauhakari I was afraid of that, but trying to be optimistic, thought I'd ask people who know way more about this than me....