desk vs workspace

desk

noun
  • A department tasked with a particular topic or focus in certain types of businesses, such as newspapers and financial trading firms. 

  • A reading table or lectern to support the book from which the liturgical service is read, differing from the pulpit from which the sermon is preached; also (especially in the United States), a pulpit. Hence, used symbolically for the clerical profession. 

  • A table, frame, or case, in past centuries usually with a sloping top but now usually with a flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a drawer or repository underneath. 

verb
  • To equip with a desk or desks. 

  • To shut up, as in a desk; to treasure. 

workspace

noun
  • An area allocated for someone to work in, especially in an office. 

  • An empty portion of the screen or window that serves as a container for other windows or objects. 

  • The set of points that can be reached by the end-effector of a robotic manipulator 

  • Any of the screens that can be switched between in a virtual desktop. 

  • A file (or system of files) in which related software and data can be manipulated or developed in isolation from others. 

How often have the words desk and workspace occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )