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I had blogged about the origin of the word here:

Bank of America to rebuild tech stack with Python at core:

https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/10/bank-of-america-to-rebui...

The third comment on the post is also about the word bankrupt, although said to be a folk etmyology here.

That is so interesting! It has also found its way into the vocabulary of regional Indian languages, via the Portuguese[0]. Pronounced "baak", it's a common word to denote school benches.

[0]https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%95

The word “bankrupt” comes from the process of ritually breaking said benches of a merchant who couldn’t make due on their debts.

That’s especially a fun one because it’s true even though it sounds totally apocryphal.

Wikipedia and Etymonline label it as a probably folk etymology.

Alas. It was a good anecdote, past tense.

Shucks. I went for a quick google which seemed to confirm, but oh well.

I didn’t know that. Nice one!