Forms: (1 banca), 3 bonck, baunk, 5–6 banck(e, 6–7 banke, 6– bank. [ME. baunk, banck, apparently a. OF. banc ‘bench’ (= Pr. banc, It., Sp., Pg. banco):—late L. bancus bench, ‘scamnum,’ ad. Teut. bank, banc (OS., MHG., MDu. banc, OHG. banch, G., Du. bank):—OTeut. *banki-z BENCH; cognate with BANK sb.1:—OTeut. *bankon-. If however OE. hó(h)banca ‘heel-bench, couch, sofa,’ was really a compound of an OE. *banca (see prec.), the ME. word might be the lineal descendant of that, subsequently identified with the Fr. banc. The true native equivalent is BENCH:—OE. bęnc.]
† 1. A long seat for several to sit on, a bench, or form; a platform or stage to speak from. Obs. (Cf. mountebank.)
[a. 1050. in Wright, Voc. (W.), /280. Sponda, hobanca.]
c. 1205. Lay., 25185. Þa spæc Angel þe king … And stod uppen ane boncke [1250 vp on benche].
1527. in Pocock, Rec. Ref., I. xxvi. 54. Where was prepared a bancke with quyssons and carpets.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, II. ii. (1616), 467. Fellowes, to mount a banke! Did your instructor … neuer discourse to you Of the Italian mountebankes?
1661. Heylin, Hist. Ref., II. iii. 69. Twelve Levites standing on the bank or stage.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 59. A State-Quack, that mounts his Bank in some obscure Nook, and vapours what Cures he could do on the Body politic.
2. A seat of justice; = BENCH. Bank Royal: King’s Bench. Common Bank: Common Pleas. (Cf. also BANCO sb.) arch. or Obs.
1275. Act 3 Edw. I., xlvi. Les Justices al Baunk le Roi & Justices de Baunk a Westm.
c. 1450. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 228. Fewe can ascape hit of the banck rialle.
1649. Selden, Laws of Eng., I. lxvii. (1739), 163. Tryals in the common Bank, or other Courts at Westminster.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 368. The Courts and Benches, or Banks of Justices.
1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 1109. General days in Bank in real Actions.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 277. Days in bank, dies in banco, days of appearance in the court of common pleas.
3. The bench occupied by the rowers of each oar in a galley. (So in Fr., It., Ger.)
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 169. The gally had … at euery banke or oare seuen men to rowe.
1687. B. Randolph, Archipel., 54. Every time that they tugg the oar they rise with their bodys, and fall back on the banks.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, II. ii. 224. Their Galeot (which had but eighteen Banks on a side).
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 384. Awake, My men, and take your seats upon the banks.
4. catachr. A rank or tier of oars; used chiefly in reference to the ancient galleys, which had several tiers one above another.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. V. i. § 6. 296. One of the Carthaginian Gallies, of fiue bankes.
1622. Heylin, Cosmogr., IV. (1682), 86. Gallies, with two banks of Oars upon a side.
1797. Holcroft, Stolberg’s Trav., IV. xci. 67. Dionysius supplied his gallies with live banks of rowers.
1807. Robinson, Archæol. Græca, IV. xiii. 387. Several orders or banks of oars, which … being fixed at the back of each other, ascended gradually in the manner of stairs.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., v. 114. Each ship had double banks for twelve oars a side.
5. A row of keys on an organ.
1884. Harper’s Mag., July, 272/1. What an organist would call a ‘bank’ of ivory keys.
† 6. A shelf. (Cf. G. bücherbank, etc.) Obs. rare.
1577. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Ep., 125. A banke of olde bookes.
7. A bench or table used in various trades; esp. in Printing, the table on which the sheets are laid before or after printing. (Cf. It. banco.)
1565. Act 8 Eliz., xi. § 4. The same Cap [shall] be first well scoured and closed, upon the Bank.
1867. N. & Q., 30 Nov., 432. When a man is about to work a block of stone, he places it upon a stool or stout table … termed a ‘bank.’
8. a. The floor of a glass-melting furnace. b. A pottery.
1880. Ch. Mason, Forty Shires, 156. Each manufactory [of pottery] is called a ‘bank.’
9. A creel for holding rows of bobbins of cotton.
