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Word Nerd: "bankrupt"
Context and Language Videos
Act 3,
Scene 2
Lines 52-60

An explanation of the word "bankrupt" in Act 3, Scene 2 of myShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

myShakespeare | Romeo and Juliet 3.2 Word Nerd: bankrupt

Nurse

I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes —
God save the mark! — here on his manly breast.
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse,
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaubed in blood,
All in gore-blood. I swoonèd at the sight.

Juliet

O, break, my heart, poor bankrupt, break at once!
To prison, eyes, ne'er look on liberty.
Vile earth, to earth resign, end motion here,
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier! 
Video Transcript: 

RALPH: Bank derives from the latin bancus, which meant a bench where several people could sit. Then it also came to mean the location where benches were commonly found, like a market stall.

SARAH: Over time, the meaning narrowed to refer to a specific type of market stall, one used by money changers or lenders. Thus evolved our current meaning of bank, a financial institution.

RALPH: Rupt derives from the latin verb rumpere, to break.

SARAH: In ancient times, when a money changer could not pay his debts, his angry creditors destroyed his stall, they literally ruptured his bank. 

RALPH: In Shakespeare’s time bankrupt did not just describe someone whose money is exhausted, but was also used figuratively to describe someone whose feelings are exhausted, or emotionally drained.

SARAH: That’s how Juliet is using it to describe her heart.

RALPH: Today we also use the term in a figurative way to refer to a total lack of something important.  For example, we might describe an unscrupulous business practice as being “morally bankrupt.”