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> Purely out of curiosity, which words surprised you the most? Bank (banque) is a fun one. It comes from the Lombard money lenders who used benches as makeshif
by axlee 6y ago
> Purely out of curiosity, which words surprised you the most?
Bank (banque) is a fun one. It comes from the Lombard money lenders who used benches as makeshift tables. That's also why the root of the word is germanic despite coming from Italy.
- kergonath 6y agoI didn’t know that. Nice one!
- ashtonkem 6y agoThe word “bankrupt” comes from the process of ritually breaking said benches of a merchant who couldn’t make due on their debts.
- smogcutter 6y agoThat’s especially a fun one because it’s true even though it sounds totally apocryphal.
- stevula 6y agoWikipedia and Etymonline label it as a probably folk etymology.
- ashtonkem 6y agoAlas. It was a good anecdote, past tense.
- smogcutter 6y agoShucks. I went for a quick google which seemed to confirm, but oh well.
- agustamir 6y agoThat is so interesting! It has also found its way into the vocabulary of regional Indian languages, via the Portuguese[0]. Pronounced "baak", it's a common word to denote school benches. [0]https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%95 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%95
- vram22 6y agoI had blogged about the origin of the word here: Bank of America to rebuild tech stack with Python at core: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/10/bank-of-america-to-rebuild-tech-stack.html?m=0 https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/10/bank-of-america-to-rebui... The third comment on the post is also about the word bankrupt, although said to be a folk etmyology here.