pleite

What it means

1. 1.

   Broke, skint — of a person with no money right now, or of a company that has actually gone under.

2. 2.

   As a noun, die Pleite is a bankruptcy and, by extension, any flop: 'der Abend war eine Pleite', the evening was a washout.

Examples with translations

• Ich bin komplett pleite bis Freitag.

  I'm completely skint until Friday.

• Die Firma ist pleite gegangen.

  The company went bust.

Where it comes from

From Yiddish plejte, from Hebrew pleitah, 'flight, escape' — the image is the insolvent merchant absconding from his creditors, which is also why the older full phrase was 'Pleite gehen', to go into flight. Nothing to do with any Romance word.

First attested: 19th century

Other forms

Similar terms:

blank, abgebrannt