bankruptcy

Went out to buy some cheap, unhealthy food from Leader Price on the local industrial estate and saw this sign.

Faire faillite means to go bankrupt and it had never occurred to me that the word 'fail' was within this expression. To fail = rater, echouer in normal parlance. Bankrupt seems to be a rupture of some kind but is in fact derived from the Italian banca rotta (not a rotten bank, but literally broken counter).

Anyway, I expect businesses like these that buy up stock from firms that have gone to the wall (odd expression and nothing to do with Facebook) will be doing a roaring trade in the coming months. (why 'roaring'?).

The word banquet (small bench derived from 'banc') has undergone a complete reversal of meaning - originally a banquet was just a snack eaten on a bench rather than at table.