From Italian 'banca rotta' (broken bench) — a failed moneylender's market bench was physically smashed as public disgrace.
Declared in law as unable to pay one's debts; financially ruined.
From Italian 'banca rotta' (literally 'broken bench'), from 'banca' (bench, counter, moneylender's table) + 'rotta' (broken, from Latin 'ruptus'). In medieval Italian marketplaces, moneylenders and traders conducted business from benches. When a moneylender could no longer meet his obligations, his bench was literally broken — smashed in the marketplace as a public declaration of his failure. The word preserves this vivid scene of public financial humiliation. Key
The word 'bank' (financial institution) and 'bench' (a seat) are the same word. Both come from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (bench). Italian moneylenders sat at benches ('banca') in marketplaces; the bench became the business, and the business became 'bank.' When the moneylender failed, his bench was broken ('banca rotta'), giving