means A room or building where people work, usually at desks, handling administrative or professional tasks — or, more abstractly, a position of authority or duty one holds.

from From Latin 'officium,' meaning a service, duty, or function — itself likely a contraction of 'opificium,' from 'opus' (work) and 'facere' (to do). So at its root, an office is simply 'doing the work.' It traveled through Old French 'office' into English in the 1200s, first meaning a duty or service performed, then a position one held (an 'office' of state), and only later the physical room where such duties got done — the place catching the name of the work.