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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL7 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Bank”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
BankEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Old English banc (“bank, hillock, embankment”), from Proto-Germanic *bankô.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗BankEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Various origins: * Borrowed from Dutch and German Bank (“bench”), a metonymic occupational surname for someone who worked with a bench or counter, like a money changer. * Borrowed from Danish and Swedish Bank, a topographic surname from bank (“sandbank”) or, alternatively, a nickname for a loud an noisy person, from bank (“noise”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bankEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. Proto-Germanic *bankiz Proto-West Germanic *banki Lombardic bankbor. Italian bancabor. Middle French banqueder. English bank Inherited from Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco. For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́вок (prilávok).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bankEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der. Proto-Germanic *bankiz Proto-West Germanic *banki Lombardic bankbor. Italian bancabor. Middle French banqueder. English bank Inherited from Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco. For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́вок (prilávok).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bankEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
From Middle English bank, banke, from Old English *banca (“bench”) (attested in Old English hōbanca (“couch”) and Old English banc (“bank, hillock, embankment”), from Proto-West Germanic *bankō, from Proto-Germanic *bankô. Akin to Old Norse bakki (“elevation, hill”), Norwegian bakke (“slope, hill”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bankEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
From Middle English bank, banke, from Old French banc (“bench”), from Frankish *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench”). Akin to Old English benċ (“bench”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗bankEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
Probably from French banc. Of Germanic origin, and akin to English bench.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 2024MODERN ENTRY POINTS
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ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
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CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 1
Did check begin with verification?
No. The oldest sequence starts with chess, then stop and restraint; verification and banking are later semantic branches.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 2
Your bank check began as a threat to a king.
Persian šāh becomes a chess warning, French eschec, and English check. Stop and restraint later produce verification and the anti-forgery counterfoil behind the bank draft.
The king is still hiding inside check.
English shah directly borrows the Persian royal title. A much longer route through chess vocabulary carries that same king-word into English check and its later restraint, verification, and banking senses.
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands — vijand
Marlies Philippa · Frans Debrabandere · Arend Quak · Tanneke Schoonheim · Nicoline van der Sijs / 2009
publisherAUDIT EVERY USE ↗Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands — vriend
Marlies Philippa · Frans Debrabandere · Arend Quak · Tanneke Schoonheim · Nicoline van der Sijs / 2009
publisherAUDIT EVERY USE ↗Söderwall: Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket — resource metadata
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