Todays Word

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with Anu Garg

deserts

PRONUNCIATION:

(di-ZUHRTS) 

MEANING:

noun: Something that is deserved.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin deservire (to serve zealously). Earliest documented use: 1297.

NOTES:

This word survives almost entirely inside the phrase just deserts, meaning punishment or reward that fits the deed. Despite appearances, this has nothing to do with cakes, or arid landscapes. In movies, after a lifetime of crime, villains often get their just deserts. In real life, they get elected.

The world may be in disarray, but at least we can keep the language straight:

desert (di-ZUHRT), as in “to receive just deserts”
from Latin deservire (to serve zealously)

desert (di-ZUHRT), as in “to desert the army”
from Latin deserere (to abandon)

desert (DEZ-uhrt), as in “the Sahara”
from Latin deserere (to abandon)

dessert (di-ZUHRT), as in “fat-free dessert”
from French desservir (to clear the table)

dissert (di-SUHRT), as in “to speak or write at length”
from Latin disserere (to arrange, examine)

USAGE:

“[Carol Burnett’s] favorites starred Jimmy Stewart, and ‘the bad guys always got their just deserts’.”
Julieanne Smolinski; Whatever Happened to Fun?; Harper’s Bazaar (New York); Mar 2024.

See more usage examples of deserts in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.