lexie carrel

1593, from M.L. carula "small study in a cloister," perhaps from L. corolla "little crown, garland," used in various senses of "ring" (e.g. of Stonehenge: "þis Bretons renged about þe feld, þe karole of þe stones beheld," 1330); extended to precincts and spaces enclosed by rails, etc. Specific sense of "private cubicle in a library" is from 1919.