desk

Desk comes from Middle English deske or desque, from Medieval Latin desca, which was reshaped from Old Italian desco, itself from Latin discus.

The facts don't reveal how the meaning shifted from disc to writing surface — just that the word passed through Old Italian and Medieval Latin before settling into Middle English as deske.

Desk is a doublet of dais, disc, discus, dish, disk, and diskos — all descending from the same Latin discus. It's also worth noting alongside German Tisch, meaning 'table.'