The word Bankruptcy means?

One of the most common theories on the origin of the word "bankruptcy" comes from a mixing of the ancient Latin words bancus (bench or table) and ruptus (broken). When a banker, who originally conducted his public marketplace transactions on a bench, was unable to continue lending and meet obligations, the bench was broken in a symbolic show of failure and inability to negotiate.

As a result of the frequency of this practice in Medieval Italy, the current term bankrupt is commonly believed to spring specifically from the translation of banco rotto, Italian for broken bank. Although Italy today has a very weak economy you can perhaps say that the market economy theories come from here, through Machiavelli's outrageously perceptive feats during the late 1400s.

The word broke that is commonly used in the English speaking countries might well have the same origin.

(Others have speculated that the word's origin actually stems from the French expression banque route, table trace. This phrase relates to the metaphorical practice of only a sign left at the site of a banker's table once there and now gone. This practice involved those who fled quickly­ escaping with money that had been entrusted to them.)

Source Wikipedia and bankruptcydata.com