Etymology

bankster

bank·ster
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Today it means: A banker who is seen as criminally irresponsible, or as extorting bailout money from the taxpayers. Full definition →

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The story

Blend of banker + gangster. Popularized in the Pecora Commission (1932–1934) that investigated the causes of the Wall Street crash of 1929. The term was later used by Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist politician and journalist, in 1937 as a pejorative term for high financiers.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.