broker

One would assume that if you employed a specialist financial expert to personally seek out the best investment opportunities for your hard-earned cash, he/she wouldn’t turn up roaring drunk and brandishing a large spike. But that’s what could well have been the case in medieval times. The pointed tool was known as a broche in Old French, which also gives us the modern broach and brooch. It was used to pierce wine casks, which were then stopped up with a bung. The broker, who did this job, was also a wine seller, and the term was later applied to any middleman or commercial agent. Of course, if your investment goes up, he’ll be a useful person to have a round to broach the wine casks for the celebration.