Bank | A Word with Rich Historical Significance | Shashankar Patil

  The primary sense of the word ‘bank’ is the area alongside a river or canal. It was used in this sense in the 12th century. It was taken from Scandinavian sources such as Old Norse ‘banki’ and Old Danish ‘banke’. 

In Middle English, ‘bank’ meant a mound or a shore. It means a long, high mass or mound of a particular substance. For example, a grassy bank or a bank of snow. An illustration of this type of bank is found in Oberon’s song in Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He sings:

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine;

There sleeps Titania sometime.”

In the fifteenth century, the word ‘bank’ extended to include the current meaning of ‘financial institution’. It was taken either from Old Italian banca or from Middle French banque. The meaning of both words is ‘table’. Mention may be made of the fact that the Old High German ‘bank’ meant bench. It had acquired this sense due to a custom followed by the moneylenders during the Renaissance period. They used the benches as desks for the purpose of their money transactions. Reference may be made to the writings of Francis Bacon and John Evelyn.

The famous essayist Francis Bacon says that “Let it be no bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money.” Whereas Evelyn, referring to the Monte di Pietà at Padua, writes: “There is a continual bank of money to assist the poor.” 

In the sense of ‘bench’, it also referred to the bench or tribunal occupied by the judges. For example, a ‘sitting in bank’ refers to a meeting of all the judges of a Court usually for the purpose of hearing arguments or demurrers, points reserved, motions for new trial, etc. It is distinguished from the sitting of a single judge at the assizes or at nisi prius.

The word ‘bank’ has also included the senses of a ‘set of things in rows’ and a ‘tier of oars’. In games, it refers to the stock or fund of pieces from which the players draw. It also stands for a special storage place like a Blood Bank.