What does preliminary work mean?

What does "work" in workshop mean?

• This is more of a translation problem. Workshop is translated to Chinese as "工作坊" where 工作 means "to work" and 坊 basically means "place". My question is regarding the "work" - does the "work" in workshop the same as "to work", or more of "a piece of work/artwork"? If it is the latter, the translation does not hold. I tried to search dictionaries online but got no help on the origin of the word. Thank you!

• Answer:

  Chinese translation depends on the intricacies of the writing system, with which I am not familiar. However, your question about the "work-" part in the compound-turned-perfectly-regular-noun "workshop" I can answer. You ask whether it is a verb, "to work" or a noun, "a piece of work/artwork". It is neither. The question reflects the Chinese writing system but not how natural languages work. In a compound noun (from which the noun "workshop" descends), both particles are considered nouns and it means "work" as in "I work [verb]. My work [noun] is painting pictures. A place where work [noun] takes place can be called a shop. I paint at my workshop". The meaning mentioned in another comment, of where a one-off group gets together to advance in a particular field (with little or no concrete reference to a physical location), is secondary and metaphorical. (In some places, however, it's more common than the aforementioned sense).