'artesonado' originates from Spanish, specifically from the noun 'artesa' (a wooden trough or kneading trough), where the comparison was drawn between the recessed panels of a ceiling and the hollow form of a trough.

'artesonado' developed in medieval Spanish architectural terminology to describe ceilings with sunken panels; the term was used especially in Mudejar carpentry and spread in descriptions of Iberian and colonial architecture.

Initially it referred by analogy to the trough-like recessed forms (from 'artesa'), and over time it came to denote specifically a decorative coffered ceiling (the modern architectural sense).