'credit-ruining' originates from the combination of 'credit' and 'ruin,' where 'credit' refers to one's financial trustworthiness and 'ruin' means to destroy or damage.

'credit' from Latin 'creditum' meaning 'a loan' and 'ruin' from Latin 'ruina' meaning 'a collapse' combined to form the modern term 'credit-ruining.'

Initially, it meant 'to destroy financial trust,' but over time it evolved into its current meaning of 'causing significant damage to one's credit score.'