| 词源 |
bank; bankrupt. In medieval times Italian moneylenders used a small bench in the marketplace to conduct their busi- ness. The Latin word for such a bench, banca, is in fact the source for the English word bank. These moneylenders, the bankers of their day, were required to break up their benches if they failed in business, and the Latin expression for doing so, banca rupta, later became the English word bankrupt. |