entry
bank
/bæŋk/Financial institution handling deposits, loans, and payments
From Proto-Germanic, transmitted through Italian and French bank (Shelf).
from Proto-Germanic *bankiz- "shelf," *bankon- (see bank (n.2)). The etymological notion is of the moneylender's...
from French banque (itself
Word Ancestry
from Proto-Germanic *bankiz- "shelf," *bankon- (see bank (n.2)). The etymological notion is of the moneylender's...
from French banque (itself
Picture a medieval moneylender sitting behind a sturdy wooden table, with coins clinking across its surface. That table was the crucial object: Italian banca meant “bench” or “moneylender’s table,” borrowed from a Germanic word for a shelf or bench, and French banque helped carry it into English in the late fifteenth century. By the 1620s, a bank was no longer merely the counter where money changed hands; it had become the institution itself. The same furniture survives in bankrupt, from Italian banca rotta, literally “broken bench”—the dramatic image of a moneylender whose business had collapsed. And in 1956, Liberace coined “cry all the way to the bank” after critics panned a Madison Square Garden concert that audiences nevertheless packed, proving that a bad review could still leave the cash drawer gloriously full.
The Story
Picture a medieval moneylender sitting behind a sturdy wooden table, with coins clinking across its surface. That table was the crucial object: Italian banca meant “bench” or “moneylender’s table,” borrowed from a Germanic word for a shelf or bench, and French banque helped carry it into English in the late fifteenth century. By the 1620s, a bank was no longer merely the counter where money changed hands; it had become the institution itself. The same furniture survives in bankrupt, from Italian banca rotta, literally “broken bench”—the dramatic image of a moneylender whose business had collapsed. And in 1956, Liberace coined “cry all the way to the bank” after critics panned a Madison Square Garden concert that audiences nevertheless packed, proving that a bad review could still leave the cash drawer gloriously full.
Modern Usage
A substantial amount of money, wealth, or—less commonly—to rob or fight someone
Popularized by: Urban Dictionary usage, including an example associated with The Wire
Notable References
- The Wire
Kin & Kindred
From 'bank'·Shelf, bench, or moneylender’s table
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia