Bank + rupte

From the great documentary The Story of 1 Hosted by Monty Python's Terry Jones, I learned an interesting fact about the origin of the word bankruptcy. In ancient Rome the Latin "bancus" referred to a bench or table where you would change out your money. The tables were like large abacuses, and allowed the banker to tabulate the exchange. If however, the banker was found guilty of cheating you on the exchange (since they were the ones trained in counting) the Romans would come by and "rupte" or "rotto" literally "break" their table. This way the bank was literally broken, or banco rupte, or bankrupt. Interesting eh?

Wikipedia for more.