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Ha, I love this! A bit more history from the Wikipedia article on banks: > Benches were used as makeshift desks or exchange counters during the Renaissance by

• jahnu 5y ago
  Bankrupt, or Bankrott from German means rotten bench. You can work out the rest :)
  • tomjakubowski 5y ago
    -rupt comes from Latin rompere meaning to break. (see also "rupture")
    • Sharlin 5y ago
      And "erupt", "disrupt", and "abrupt", which come from roots literally meaning "out-break", "apart-break", and "away-break", respectively :)
  • leipert 5y ago
    Seems like a false assumption. According to wiktionary it comes from „banca rotta“ where rotta goes back to Latin „rumpere“ which means „to break“. Whereas the English rotten or the German go back to old Norse „rutna“ (to rot). The two don’t share the same root.