- bank (1)
- "financial institution," late 15c., from either O.It. banca or M.Fr. banque (itself from the O.It. word), both meaning "table" (the notion is of the moneylender's exchange table), from a Gmc. source (cf. O.H.G. bank "bench"); see bank (2). The verb meaning "to put confidence in" (U.S. colloquial) is attested from 1884. Bank holiday is from 1871, though the tradition is as old as the Bank of England. To cry all the way to the bank was coined 1956 by flamboyant pianist Liberace, after a Madison Square Garden concert that was packed with patrons but panned by critics.
- bank (2)
- "earthen incline, edge of a river," c.1200, probably in O.E. but not attested in surviving documents, from a Scandinavian source such as O.N. banki, O.Dan. banke "sandbank," from P.Gmc. *bangkon "slope," cognate with *bankiz "shelf."