'Office' shifted from duty to position to building — Latin 'opus' (work) + 'facere' (to do) at its core.
A room or building used for professional or administrative work; a position of authority or service, especially in government.
From Latin officium (duty, service, function, office), widely analysed as a contraction of opificium — from opus (work, deed) + facere (to do, to make). The PIE root for opus is *h₃ep- (to work, to produce), also seen in Latin opera (works, effort) and English operate. The PIE root for facere is *dheh₁- (to do, to put, to set), one of the most productive roots in all Indo-European, generating
The 'Divine Office' in Christian monasticism — the cycle of daily prayers at fixed hours — preserves the oldest English sense of 'office' as a duty or service to be performed. When monks rise for Matins at 3 AM, they are performing an 'office' in its original Latin sense: a work-duty, a service owed. The modern workplace 'office' is etymologically the place