Shocking Origins of Some Common Words
If you love language as I do, you will find the etymology of the following words fascinating. Bankrupt The Medici family, also known as the House of Medici, were the original mob bosses. They came to power through their success in commerce and banking in fifteenth-century Florence. Outside Lorenzo de Medici’s palace and every other wealthy Florentine, was a long bench where merchants sat and discussed financial business with their clients. These benches, called banco, later referred to the business themselves — what we call today “banks.” When merchants went out of business, they broke their benches to signify that they were banco rotto — literally meaning “broken bench.” Banco rotto evolved into the English word bankrupt. So if you ever see a broken bench outside your banker’s house, better get your money and run. Editor Writers are familiar with the term “kill your darlings” — the process of cutting precious words from your writing. But editors were advocating bloodshed well befor