desierto

Forms

desierto (feminine desierta, masculine plural desiertos, feminine plural desiertas)^[1] Old Spanish has desierto and desiert, besides deserto, desert and the popular disierto and diserto.^[2][3] The noun is masculine, el desierto (plural desiertos).^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish desierto, inherited from Latin dēsertus (“abandoned, deserted”), the past participle of dēserō (“to leave, abandon”).^[4][5][6][1] The noun continues the neuter dēsertum (“desert”).^[1][7][8] Corominas calls the word an old and well-rooted semi-learned form: a fully popular word would have been disierto, which Torres Naharro and others use.^[4] The verb is formed from dē- and serō (“to link, join”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to thread, tie together”).^[9][10]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese deserto, Catalan desert, French désert, Italian deserto and Romanian deșert.^[11][12][1] Coromines finds it hard to say whether the Catalan word is inherited or semi-learned, as the Castilian, French and Italian words must be for phonetic reasons.^[13] Spanish later took desertar and desertor from French déserter and déserteur.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas first finds the word as a noun in the early 13th century, in Berceo and the Vida de Santa María Egipciaca.^[4][5] Berceo has it in the call of John the Baptist: Fuyd a los desiertos.^[14] The DEMel has the forms desiert and desierta already in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Corominas finds the adjective only from the Cancionero de Baena and the later 15th century, but the Siete Partidas already speak of the saints who chose logares yermos & desiertos “waste and deserted places” to live in.^[4][15] The same text uses the noun for the wilderness where Christ fasted forty days.^[15] Covarrubias (1611) defines the desert as a solitary place that nobody lives in or tills, where the hermits withdrew, and records predicar en desierto for speaking to listeners who will not take the teaching, and the legal dar por desierta la apelación for an appeal that lapsed.^[16] The legal sense is found in Mexico in 1531.^[17]

Salvá (1846) adds a wide, untilled territory where only wandering people live.^[18] Alemany (1917) has the sense of an auction, contest or competition in which nobody takes part.^[19] The current dictionary adds the geographical desert, a sandy or stony territory almost without rain and vegetation.^[6][20]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has desiert.^[2]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipciaca uses the noun.^[4][2]
• 1256–1300 – the Siete Partidas use the adjective desiertos and the noun.^[15]
• 1531 – the first record from the Americas, the legal quedó desierta, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records predicar en desierto.^[16]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the noun and adjective in separate entries.^[21]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin desertus.^[22]
• 1917 – Alemany records the auction or contest declared desierto.^[19]

Meanings

Adjective

1. deserted, uninhabited, empty: A las tres de la mañana la plaza estaba desierta.^[6][1]
2. Of an auction, contest or competition: with no successful bidder or winner: El jurado declaró desierto el premio de poesía.^[6][23]

Noun

1. An uninhabited place.^[6]
2. A desert: a sandy or stony territory that, for lack of rain, has little or no vegetation.^[6][1]

Word family

• desértico

Related words

• deserción
• desertar
• desertor
• Latin dēsertus
• French désert

Usage notes

Predicar en desierto or en el desierto, and clamar en el desierto, mean to try in vain to persuade people who will not listen.^[6][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. desierto
3. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 167
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 464
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desierto
6. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. desierto
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 224
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. desierto
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2592
12. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. desertus
13. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 82
14. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. desierto
15. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. desierto
16. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 657
17. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. desierto
18. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 382
19. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 565
20. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. desierto
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 185
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 368
23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desierto