Picture an empty map, and then people arriving on it: first the coast, then the valleys, until the blank spaces have lives in them. Two things hold that picture together. The container comes first and the contents arrive afterwards, and the filling happens over time rather than all at once. Once you can see that, the modern office use follows without any new idea: an empty table on a screen, and rows of data arriving into it until the blank space is full. Same picture, smaller container.
From the word’s history
The source entry derives the word from Medieval Latin populatus, from Latin populus ('people'). The 'people' idea is literally inside the word, which is also why population and popular look so similar.
來源資料把這個字追到中世紀拉丁文 populatus，再到拉丁文 populus（人民）。也就是說，「人」這個意思就寫在字裡面。這也解釋了 population（人口）和 popular（受歡迎的）為什麼長得那麼像——它們是同一家。資料填入的用法是後來借畫面借過去的，不是這條字源直接帶來的。
Wiktionary/kaikki snapshot 3f6f69a190036ae4, entry 'populate' (verb), etymology_text: borrowed from Medieval Latin populatus, past participle of populor, from Latin populus ('people').
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