Long seats without backs, or the seats where judges sit in a courtroom, or where sports team players wait on the sidelines.
From Old English 'benc' (a long seat). The word has remained relatively unchanged for over a thousand years.
The term 'on the bench' in sports and law has different meanings: in sports it means you're not playing, but in law it means you ARE the judge—because judges literally sat on a special bench called 'the bench'!
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