'bankrupt' originates from Italian, specifically the word 'bancarotta' (or 'banca rotta'), where 'banca' meant 'bench' and 'rotta' (from Latin 'rupta') meant 'broken'. The idea referred to a moneylender's bench being broken to show inability to pay.

'bankrupt' changed from Italian 'bancarotta' via Middle French 'banqueroute' and Anglo-Norman into Middle English as 'bankrupt', eventually becoming the modern English word 'bankrupt'.

Initially it referred literally to a 'broken bench' (the bench of a moneylender) and by extension to the disgrace of a dealer who could not pay; over time it evolved into the legal/financial sense 'insolvent, unable to pay debts'.