Bureau

[William Hupy]

Originally a coarse brown cloth covering a desk, burel. From Latin for either red or wool. Since offices were filled with desks, bureau became associated with government agencies. The chest of drawers Meaning appears to be American English only usage. In French, a bureau is office and in German Büro.

[Slava]

Along these lines is the word exchequer, which comes from the cloth used on the tables in the office. It reminded people of a chessboard.

[brogine]

Mr. OED sez:

Etymology: Middle English escheker , < Old French eschequier (modern French échiquier ) = Italian scaccario , medieval Latin scaccārium chessboard, < scaccus check, scacchi chess: see -arium suffix, -er suffix1. The modern exchequer is a literary corruption, caused by mistaking es- in this word for the Old French es- < Latin ex- , as in eschange , Latin excambium , now exchange n., esploit , Latin explicitum , now exploit n., etc. When these words were refashioned after Latin analogies, escheker was ignorantly altered in the same way. For the derivation see chequer n.1, check int. and n