Forms: 5–7 banke, 6 bancke, 7 banque, banck, 7– bank. [Early mod.E. banke, a. F. banque, ad. It. banca fem., used side by side, and in same sense, with banco masc.; ad. Teut. bank, banc, bench: see prec. word. The double form and gender in Romanic, cf. It., Sp., Pg. banco, banca, Pr. banc, banca, F. banc, banche, are apparently original (see med.L. bancus, banca, in Du Cange), and due to the double gender of the German: OHG. der, diu banch, MHG. der, die banc, early mod. and dial. G. der, die bank. The original meaning ‘shelf, bench’ (see BANK1 and 2, and BENCH) was extended in It. to that of ‘tradesman’s stall, counter, money-changer’s table, mensa argentaria, τράπεζα,’ whence ‘money-shop, bank,’ a use of the word which passed, with the trade of banking, from Italy into other countries. In this sense, It. uses both banco and banca, Sp. and Pg. the masc. banco; but in F. the It. fem. banca was adapted as banque, whence Eng. banke, bank. The word is thus ultimately identical with BENCH and BANK2, and cognate with BANK1.
(Although, in It., monte ‘mount, heap, amount, stock,’ was used in some of the senses of ‘bank,’ the notion that the name banco, banca, originated in a German rendering of monte is erroneous: G. bank had no such sense as ‘mount, heap,’ only that of ‘bench, shelf.’ Rather is it the fact, that in the development of banking, the banco of the money-changer, and the monte or ‘joint-stock capital’ were at length combined, and bank applied in Eng. to both.)]
I. A money-dealer’s table, counter or shop.
† 1. The table or counter of a money-changer or dealer in money. Obs. exc. Hist.
1567. Jewel, Def. Apol. (1611), 462. Christ overthrew the Exchangers bankes, meaning thereby, that there may be no coine in the Church, but only Spirituall.
1584. Fenner, Def. Ministers (1587), 98. Christ ouerthrew the exchaungers banckes.
1598. Florio, Banco, a bench, a marchants banke, or counting house, a counter.
1611. Cotgr., Banque, a banke, where money is let out to use: or lent, or returned by exchange: also, the table whereon such money is told.
1846. Arnold, Hist. Rome, II. xxvii. 72. These established their banks or tables in the forum, like ordinary bankers.
† 2. The shop, office, or place of business of a money-dealer. (Cf. BANKER2 1 a, b.) Now merged in 7 a.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, III. iv. There was a … chaungeour … A man cam to hym and sayd and affermyd that he had delyueryd in to his banke v hondred floryns of gold to kepe.
1526. Tindale, Luke xix. 23. Wherfore then gavest not thou my money into the banke [Gr. τράπεζα; Wyclif, borde; Coverdale, exchaunge Banke]?
1552. Huloet, Bancke of exchaunge, Argentaria.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. xi. 21. Exchangers of Money made the temple to be the market and the banke.
II. An amount or stock of money.
† 3. A sum of money, an amount (It. monte); a ‘pile.’ (Cf. ‘mounts of coin’ in last quot.) Obs.
1515. Barclay, Eglogs, i. (1570), A v/3. Where shall I … some little banke procure, That from the bagge and staffe mine age may be sure.
1652. Brome, Jov. Crew, I. Wks. 358. Cash; which added Unto your former Banck, makes up in all Twelve thousand and odd pounds.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 146. He had got a great bank of money to be prepared.
1758. J. Blake, Mar. Syst., 68. The … payments will constitute a bank, or nest egg.
[Cf. c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1753), 128. And bring in Mounts of Coin His Mints to feed, And Banquers (trafics chief suporters) breed.]
† b. esp. A sum to draw upon. Obs.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxiv. 225. S. Paul finds a constant bank for Ministers Maintenance lockt up in a Ceremoniall Law.
1665. S. Bing, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 310, IV. 24. To extend your charity to the outrunning the bank you honoured me with.
† c. A batch of paper-money. Obs. (exc. Hist.)
1878. F. Walker, Money, xv. 319. In 1738 a Bank of £100,000 was issued with new provisions for securing the interest of the mortgages.
4. In games of hazard, the amount or pile of money that the player who plays against all the others, e.g., the proprietor of the gaming-table, has before him.
c. 1720. Pope, Basset-T., 78. When Kings, Queens, Knaves, are set in decent rank: Expos’d in glorious heaps the tempting Bank.
c. 1750. H. Walpole, in Harper’s Mag., July (1884), 258/1. He saw neither the bank nor his own cards.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lvi. (1884), 548. He had seen his friend … lose eighteen thousand at a sitting, and break the bank three nights running at Paris.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., vii. 175. It is certainly playing against the bank.
† 5. An amount made up by the contributions of many; a joint stock or capital. Obs.
1625. Bacon, Usury, Ess. (Arb.), 545. Let it be no Banke or Common Stocke, but euery Man be Master of his owne Money.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 11. They advance trade whersoever they com; with the banks of mony.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 129. The stock in each man is small, and … individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages.
† 6. An amount so contributed for lending to the poor; a loan-bank; whence the modern pawnbroker’s establishment (Fr. mont de piété). Obs.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., II. xiii. 335. In Italic there are Montes pietatis, that is to say, Mounts or Bankes of Charitie, places where great summes of money are by legacies given for reliefe of the poore, to borrow vpon pawnes.
1646. J. Benbrigge, Vsura Accom., 3. For their [the poor’s] rescue may be collected Mons pietatis, sive charitatis, a Banke of piety or charity … a certaine summe of money, or things … which is laid up for the reliefe of the poore, either by one rich man, or by many.
1659. Torriano, Dict., Monte di pietà, a publick stock or bank maintained for the relief of the poor, where pawns may be taken.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, E j a. A Bank of Loane in that part of the Suburbs of this great City.
fig. 1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. ix. 110. The talent which God hath intrusted to us in the banks of nature and grace.
1704. E. Arwaker, Embass. Heav., ix. Is not thy Bank of Blessings yet dismay’d, To Lend, where so unthankfully Repaid?
III. (Ordinary modern sense.)
7. An establishment for the custody of money received from, or on behalf of, its customers. Its essential duty is the payment of the orders given on it by the customers; its profits arise mainly from the investment of the money left unused by them.
a. Banks (in England) may be divided into—
a. Private Banks, carried on by one or more (in Great Britain not exceeding ten) persons in partnership. Cf. sense 2 above.
b. Joint-Stock Banks, of which the capital is subscribed by a large number of shareholders. (Cf. sense 5 above). Of these the greatest is …
c. The Bank of England, shortly ‘The Bank,’ a corporation of subscribers and contributors to a capital sum of £1,200,000, to whom a charter was granted in 1694 (by the name or style of ‘the Governor and Company of the B. of E.’), on condition of their lending that sum to the Government, with certain privileges now no longer existing, or maintained only for the benefit of the State. Its duties are to manage the service of the public debt, to receive and account for the revenue when collected, and to provide and attend to the automatically regulated issue of legal tender notes. Its banking business is of the same nature as that of the other joint-stock or private banks, its chief customer being the Government.
[Cf. 1526. in 2.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke xix. 23. Haue deliuered foorth my money to the kepers of the banke.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, IV. i. In Florence, Venice, Antwerp … Have I debts owing; and … Great sums of money lying in the banco.]
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., I. xx. 131. A Banke is properly a collection of all the readie money of some Kingdome, into the hands of some persons licensed thereunto by publicke authoritie.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), III. VII. § 10. 344. The bank of all Greece which he had sent for from Delos.
1849. Saxe, Poems, Times, 373. Always abundance of gold in the Banks.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), III. xxx. 397. The temples of the ancient world were the banks in which private possessors deposited their most precious effects.
1876. B. Price, Currency & B., 102. I defined a bank to be an institution for the transfer of debts.
a. 1694. (title) Brief account of the intended Bank of England.
1720. Swift, Irish Manuf., Wks. 1761, III. 14. I cannot forbear saying one word upon a thing they call a bank, which I hear is projecting in this town.
1828. Taylor, Money Syst. Eng., 138. The Bank of England had parted with six or eight millions of gold at the current mint price.
1834. Gilbart, Hist. Bank., 95. The number of private country banks, and branches of private banks, in England and Wales is 638.
1881. H. H. Gibbs, Double Standard, 69. The result would really be … that the Bank would always hold both Silver and Gold bullion.
b. Bank of deposit, a bank that receives lodgements of money. Bank of issue or circulation, a bank which issues its own notes or promises to pay; in Great Britain a bank to which the right of issue was continued by the Acts of 1844–45. Branch bank, a branch-office of a bank, established to give banking facilities to a locality at a distance from the head-office. Savings-bank, a bank of which the express object is to take charge of the savings of the poorer classes, or of small sums of money.
1834. Gilbart, Hist. Bank., 109. The establishment of branch banks may be considered as the effect of the formation of joint-stock banks. Ibid., 133. Similar accusations may be as justly advanced against banks of deposit as against banks of circulation.
1863. Haydn, Dict. Dates, 67. The branch banks of the Bank of England in the chief towns of the kingdom: as Birmingham &c., have all been formed since 1828.
c. fig.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 543. As affliction is a furnace, so is it a banque: Job had twice as much after he had lost all as before.
1691. South, 12 Serm. (1727), II. 399 (J.). Their Pardons and Indulgences, and giving Men a share in the Saints Merits, out of the common Bank and Treasury of the Church.
† d. In bank: in a bank or the bank, at one’s bankers’. Also fig.: in store. Obs.
1563. Homilies, II. xi. I. (1850), 387. He which sheweth mercy to the poore doth lay his money in banke to the Lord.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., II. xi. 335. The paiments by Assignement in Banke without handling of moneys.
1646. Evance, Noble Order, 13. The benefits … in hand, besides the blessings that are in banck.
1753. Whitefield, in Scots Mag., May, 214/1. The young man has the balance in bank.
8. Comb.: a. attrib. or obj. genitive, as bank-accountant, -building, -charter, -clerk, -coffer, -counter, -director, -manager, -master (obs.).
c. 1618. Fletcher, Pilgr., I. 51. Rogues and Beggars have got the trick now to become Banckmasters.
1803. Edin. Rev., II. 103. The bank-coffers are drained of gold.
1828. Taylor, Money Syst. Eng., 193. That the bank directors be required to pay their notes on demand in gold at the market price.
1834. Gilbart, Hist. Bank., 30. In 1708 the Bank charter was extended or renewed until the expiration of twelve months.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 526. Behind the bank-counter.
1860. Trollope, Framley P., xlii. 15. The bank manager from Barchester.
b. Special combinations:
Bank annuities, a technical term for certain British government funds; usually, the Consolidated 3 per cent. Annuities, or ‘consols’; bank-cheque, check, a check or order to pay issued upon a bank; bank-circulation, a name applied to receipts given by the Bank of England to contributors to the loan made to the Government in 1751, which circulated as paper currency; bank-court, the weekly meeting of the Governor and Directors of the Bank of England, or other joint-stock bank; also, the general court of proprietors; bank-credit, a credit opened for any person by a correspondent of a bank, to enable the former to draw for the amount; bank-money (cf. BANCO a.); also, money in the bank; bank-paper, bank-notes in circulation; bills of exchange accepted by a banker; bank-parlour, the court-room of the Bank of England; the room in which a banker or bank-manager does business with borrowers; bank-post, a kind of writing-paper used for foreign correspondence; bank-rate, the rate per cent. per annum fixed from time to time by the Bank of England, at which the company is prepared to discount bills of exchange having not more than 95 days to run; bank-receipt, formerly, a receipt given by the Bank of England on its formation, for money deposited to be drawn against; now, an acknowledgement given by a banker for money deposited on a current account; bank-stock, the capital stock of the Bank of England, being the aggregate of the shares therein owned by the various proprietors; its original amount was £1,200,000; it is now [c. 1887] £14,553,000; bank-token, a token issued by a bank to serve for payments, on its responsibility, during a scarcity of silver coin; bankward a. and adv., towards the bank. See also BANK-BILL, -BOOK, -HOLIDAY, -NOTE.
1803. T. Jefferson, in Harper’s Mag., March, (1885), 541/2. I enclose you a *bank-check for twenty-two and a half dollars.
1753. Scots Mag., May, 262/1. *Bank-circulation 2l. 15s. prem.
1834. Gilbart, Hist. Bank., 38. In 1751, in order to raise the sum promised to be lent to the Government, the bank established what was called *‘Bank Circulation.’
1752. Hume, Balance of Trade, Ess. (1817), I. 318. An invention of this kind, which was fallen upon some years ago by the banks of Edinburgh … called a *Bank-Credit.
1636. Healey, Theophrast., 79. He, that boastes upon the Exchange, that he hath store of *banke mony.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. I. iii. 17. A ducat which passes for seven marks current, is worth but six *bank money. Ibid., vii. 35. He sells his *bank-money for current money.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 411. They imagine that our flourishing state in England is owing to that *bank-paper, and not the bank-paper to the flourishing condition of our commerce.
1884. Lisbon (Dakota) Clipper, 30 Oct., /3. The caution which has prevailed … in *bank parlors is not at all relaxed.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 397. The ordinary Saxe paper will answer very well, as will also … *Bank-post.
1876. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., III. vi. 361. The *Bank-rate of discount, is the measure, at any particular time, of the value of money.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3902/4. A *Bank Receipt … promising to be accountable to John Radhams for 4 Notes for 50l. each.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., I. (1721), 9. The Market Price varies as does the *Bank Stock.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 243, ¶ 6. How went *Bank-Stock to Day at ’Change?
1812. Examiner, 20 Sept., 607/2. Tried and convicted of uttering 3s. *Bank-tokens, knowing them to be false and counterfeited.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Nov., 3/1. When one has halfpence, how can one stop in the full tide of one’s *bankward voyage.
