 That word came from "imbarrare", "to block" or "to bar", which is a combination of "in-", "in", with "barra", "bar" (from the Vulgar Latin "barra", which is of unknown origin).The problem with this theory is that the first known usage of the word in Italian was by Bernardo Davanzati (1529-1606), long after the word had entered Spanish.Thus, modern scholars believe that the Italian word actually came from the Spanish one.