Etymologically
Log in

desert

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Desert, a barren region, desert, what one deserves, and desert, to abandon, are three words; the first and third both go back to Latin dēserere “to forsake”.[1][2]

desert1 barren region

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈdez.ət/, US /ˈdez.ɚt/[3]

Etymology

The barren region is inherited from Middle English desert, borrowed from Old French desert (“wilderness, wasteland”) and directly from Late Latin dēsertum (“a thing abandoned”),[4][2][5] used in the Vulgate for “wilderness”, a noun use of the neuter past participle of Latin dēserere (“to forsake”).[4][2] The adjective is from Old French désert, from Latin dēsertus.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wasteland or wilderness, wooded or not: about 1200 in Etymonline, before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle according to Barnhart.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a large waterless, treeless region was already in Middle English and gradually became the main meaning.[4] Classical Latin expressed it with deserta, the plural of desertus.[4] In the 18th century it was often spelt desart, which avoided confusion with the other two words.[4] A place lacking something, as in a cultural desert, is a later figurative use.[7] Desertification is from 1973.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – a wilderness.[4][2]
  • 18th century – the spelling desart.[4]
  • 1973 – desertification.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A large dry area of land with little rain and few plants, often covered with sand.
  2. A place that lacks something good: a cultural desert.

Adjective

  1. Uninhabited and barren: a desert island.

desert2 what one deserves

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /dɪˈzɜːt/, /dəˈzɜːt/, US /dɪˈzɝːt/[3]

Etymology

What one deserves is inherited from Middle English deserte, borrowed from Old French deserte (“merit, recompense”), a noun use of the past participle of deservir (“to be worthy to have”),[4][2][8] from Latin dēservīre (“to serve well, devote oneself to”).[4][2] It is related to deserve.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Deserving, being worthy of reward or punishment: 1297 in the OED, about 1300 in Etymonline.[9][4]

Semantic evolution

Merit or worth is from about 1374.[9] A suitable reward or punishment is from the late 14th century,[4][9] and the plural in one's just deserts is first recorded about 1380, in Chaucer's Boethius.[2]

Timeline

  • 1297 – deserving.[9]
  • c. 1380 – just deserts.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (usually deserts) What a person deserves, especially as punishment: get one's just deserts.
  2. The state of deserving reward or punishment.

desert3 abandon

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /dɪˈzɜːt/, /dəˈzɜːt/, US /dɪˈzɝːt/[3]

Etymology

To abandon is borrowed from French déserter,[4][2][8] from Late Latin dēsertāre, a frequentative of Latin dēserere (“to abandon, forsake”), literally “to undo a connection”, from dē- (“undo”) and serere (“to join together”).[4][2] It is related to series.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To leave or forsake: about 1380 in Chaucer's Boethius according to Barnhart, about 1600 in Etymonline, 1603 in MWU.[2][4][8]

Semantic evolution

Leaving military service or duty without permission is from the 1640s,[4] and the intransitive sense of quitting a post from the 1680s.[4] Desertion is from 1591 and deserter from 1635.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1380 – to leave, forsake.[2]
  • 1591 – desertion.[2]
  • 1640s – to leave military service.[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To leave someone or something without help; to abandon.
  2. To leave the armed forces without permission.
  3. Of a quality, to fail someone: his courage deserted him.

Usage notes

The sweet course dessert, from the mid-16th century, is a different word with a double s.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press