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MEANING, ORIGIN & USES

 

The adverb al desko means: at one’s desk—it is especially used with reference to eating lunch or other meals there.

Of American-English origin, this adverb is a humorous alteration of al fresco.

Used as an adjective, al desko refers not only to a meal eaten, or to an activity done, at one’s desk, but also, occasionally, to a person who eats or does an activity at their desk. The following, for example, is from Workers feel the strain of dining ‘al-desko’, published in the Bolton Evening News (Bolton, Lancashire, England) of Monday 29^th May 2006 [page 13, column 3]:

Most people have worked through their lunch hour on at least one occasion.
But now it seems that Britain is turning into a nation of “al-desko” diners.

Phoebe Luckhurst used al desko as a noun (spelt aldesko) in the following from Left in the office? Enjoy that short, sweet freedom, published in the Evening Standard (London, England) of Friday 11^th February 2022 [page 7, column 4]:

Free lunch
Usually, lunch is a sad aldesko for one, tipping your keyboard upside down to shake the crisp crumbs out—and usually interrupted by The Boss, who comes and stands behind your screen chewing Nicorette gum and telling you they need something “ASAP as possible” [sic]. This week though, you’re free. Go to Pret! Have the soup at a real table! Spend 40 minutes slack-jawed and scrolling through Instagram. You deserve this.

 

EARLY OCCURRENCES

 

There is an isolated early use of the adverb al desko in the following from The Last Memo: The White House Secretaries, After the Firing 70 Secretaries and The White House Firing Squad, by Stephanie Mansfield, published in The Washington Post (Washington, District of Columbia, USA) of Thursday 29^th January 1981:

At least 70 […] White House secretaries were terminated last week by the Reagan administration, toppled from the ultimate typing pool.
[…]
For a professional secretary, the White House is the top, the Xanadu of the Xerox set.
[…]
The transatlantic flights on Air Force One, the chauffered [sic] cars to Camp David, midnight suppers in exotic places, VIPs to greet, phone calls returned tout de suite…
[…]
[…] There were other advantages: working with the cream of your profession, parking right near your office, no check-cashing hassles once you pulled out your White House ID.
There were other perks afforded the elite tribe of typists: Christmas cards from the president, office parties with Broadway stars, watching the Fourth of July fireworks from the South Lawn, the fanfare of state visits and maybe, just maybe, a seat in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center.
And when the tom-toms beat out the news that an unscheduled visitor like Burt Reynolds or George Peppard, Willie Nelson or Barbra Streisand just happened to be in the West Wing, the tribal ritual of roaming the corridors—hot on the celebrity trail—began.
[…]
But there is grit with the glamor: Lunches usually consist of cold sandwiches consumed al desko. Most of them work every other Saturday, some on bona fide projects, others on the whims of their bosses.
Case in point. One secretary was called in on a Saturday to type an urgent paper. The memo, it turned out, was directed to the cafeteria. Her boss wanted the menu changed.

The adverb al desko then occurred in the following two texts:

1-: From the Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) of Tuesday 29^th March 1994 [page 31, column 1]:

Workers are increasingly in to lunch
by Rose DeWolf
Daily News Staff Writer

Crunch. Munch. Slurp. Crunch. Munch. Slurp.
What’s that?
It’s the guy at the next desk having lunch.
The number of folks who have taken to dining al desko is causing some new problems in the workplace.
A co-worker who doesn’t wipe up her spilled soup in the microwave is as irritating as the guy who never replaces the paper in the copy machine.
And the smell of frozen flounder florentine is as noxious to some as now-banned cigarette smoke used to be to many.

2-: From The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) of Monday 30^th June 1997 [page E8, column 3]:

FULTON
Publix to add groceries to Perimeter shopping options

Retailers in and around Perimeter Mall can sell you just about everything but groceries. But that’s about to change. Sembler Cos. of St. Petersburg, Fla., is developing a Publix shopping center at the intersection of Hammond Drive and Peachtree Dunwoody Road and will throw in a few small shops and an Eckerd’s. Busy professionals in the area say they welcome the new retailer and figure to hit the deli for lunch al-desko often.