bank

Reading level: medium

Estimated CEFR level: A2 — Elementary

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water)
  2. noun a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities
  3. noun a long ridge or pile

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English banke, from Middle French banque, from Italian banca (“counter, moneychanger's bench or table”), from Lombardic bank (“bench, counter”), from Proto-West Germanic *banki, from Proto-Germanic *bankiz (“bench, counter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to turn, curve, bend, bow”). Doublet of bench, banc, and banco. For the bench-bank relation, compare typologically Russian ла́вка (lávka), прила́вок (prilávok).

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