bankrupt

Definitions

From Italian banca rotta = "broken bench." Medieval moneylenders did business on benches (banca) in the marketplace; when one could no longer pay, his bench was literally smashed (rotta, from ruptus = "broken") to announce he was out of business. The broken bench became the broken finances. Note: the "bank" here is the moneylender's bench, the same source as the financial "bank."

Why It Means This

Bankrupt is one of the most picturesque words in English. It came through Italian, not directly from Latin: banca rotta, the "broken bench" of a marketplace moneylender who could no longer pay. Smashing the bench was a public ritual of failure. The financial sense stuck so firmly that we now also speak figuratively of being "morally bankrupt" or "intellectually bankrupt" — completely empty of the quality named, just as a broken bench can hold nothing.

Common Collocations

• 1.go bankrupt破产
• 2.declare bankrupt宣告破产
• 3.morally bankrupt道德破产
• 4.nearly bankrupt濒临破产

Example Sentences

• 1.

  The airline went bankrupt after years of mounting losses.

• 2.

  A single failed deal nearly bankrupted the whole company.

• 3.

  Critics called the policy morally bankrupt.