desert

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See also: désert, desèrt, and deșert

English

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Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From Middle English desert, deseert, from Old French deserte, from deservir (“to deserve”), from Vulgar Latin dēserviō (“to gain or merit by giving service”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /dɪˈzɜːt/
    • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /dɪˈzɝt/, /dəˈzɝt/
  • Homophone: dessert
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t

Noun

desert (plural deserts)

  2. (usually in the plural) That which is deserved or merited; a just punishment or reward.
    • 1600, John Dowland, Flow My Tears
      From the highest spire of contentment / my fortune is thrown; / and fear and grief and pain for my deserts / are my hopes, since hope is gone.
    • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 17”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
      Who will believe my verse in time to come,
      If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
    • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:
      "Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you. And I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!"
    • July 4, 1789, Alexander Hamilton, Eulogium on Major-General Greene
      His reputation falls far below his desert.
    • 1971 John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
      "It is true that certain common sense precepts of justice, particularly those which concern the protection of liberties and rights, or which express the claims of desert, seem to contradict this contention."
Usage notes

Sometimes confused with dessert, especially in set phrases such as just deserts.

Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English desert (“wilderness”), from Old French desert, from Latin dēsertum, past participle of dēserō (“to abandon”). Displaced native Old English wēsten.

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈdɛzət/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: dĕ'zə(r)t, IPA(key): /ˈdɛzɚt/
  • Audio (US), noun:(file)

Noun

desert (countable and uncountable, plural deserts)

A desert on Mars
  1. A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
    • 1713, [Alexander] Pope, Windsor-Forest. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
      Not thus the land appear'd in ages past, / A dreary desert and a gloomy waste.
    • 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
      The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.
  2. (figuratively) Any barren place or situation.
    • 1858, William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; Or, Two Years in Victoria (page 54)
      He declared that the country was an intellectual desert; that he was famishing for spiritual aliment, and for discourse on matters beyond mere nuggets, prospectings, and the price of gold.
    • 1964 March, “News and Comment: Which way to the West?”, in Modern Railways, page 147:
      By contrast, the WR route is an economic desert between Newbury and Taunton.
    • 2006, Philip N. Cooke, Creative Industries in Wales: Potential and Pitfalls (page 34)
      So the question that is commonly asked is, why put a media incubator in a media desert and have it managed by a civil servant?

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Translations

Adjective

desert (not comparable)

  1. Usually of a place: abandoned, deserted, or uninhabited.
    They were marooned on a desert island in the Pacific.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark vi:31:
      And he said vnto them, Come yee your selues apart into a desert place, and rest a while. For there were many comming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eate.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke ix:10:
      He […] went aside privately into a desert place.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Eighth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 441, lines 252–255:
      See, from afar, yon Rock that mates the Sky, / About whoſe Feet ſuch Heaps of Rubbiſh lye: / Such indigeſted Ruin; bleak and bare, / How deſart now it ſtands, expos'd in Air!
    • 1750, Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", Stanza 14:
      Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

Borrowed from French déserter, from Late Latin desertō, from Latin desertus, from deserō (“abandon”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /dɪˈzɜːt/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /dɪˈzɝt/, /dəˈzɝt/
  • Audio (US), verb:(file)

Verb

desert (third-person singular simple present deserts, present participle deserting, simple past and past participle deserted)

  1. To leave (anything that depends on one's presence to survive, exist, or succeed), especially when contrary to a promise or obligation; to abandon; to forsake.
    You can't just drive off and desert me here, in the middle of nowhere.
  2. To leave one's duty or post, especially to leave a military or naval unit without permission.
    Anyone found deserting will be punished.
Derived terms
Translations

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

First attested 14th century[1]. From Latin dēsertum, possibly a semi-learned term.

Pronunciation

Noun

desert m (plural deserts)

  1. desert (desolate terrain)

Further reading

References

  1. ^ “desert”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024

Friulian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin dēsertum (in this form possibly a semi-learned term; cf. the variant form).

Noun

desert m (plural deserts)

  1. desert

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French deserte (“deserved”), from deservir (“to deserve”), from Vulgar Latin dēserviō (“to gain or merit by giving service”).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɛːˈzɛrt/, /dɛˈzɛrt/, /-sɛrt/

Noun

desert (plural desertes)

  2. The situation of deserving something.
  3. That which is deserved or merited; desert.
  4. An action or deed which invites or prompts judgement.
  5. worth, virtuousness, benefit; that which is good.
Descendants
  • English: desert
References

Etymology 2

From Old French desert, from Latin dēsertum, past participle of dēserō (“to abandon”).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdɛzɛrt/, /dɛˈzɛrt/, /dɛː-/, /-sɛrt/, /-art/

Noun

desert (plural desertes)

  2. wilderness (unpopulated, bare land)
    • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎[1], published c. 1410, Joon 1:23, page 43v, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
      he ſeide / I am a vois of a crier in deſert .· dꝛeſſe ȝe þe weie of þe loꝛd. as yſaie þe pꝛophete ſeide
      He said: "I am the voice of a crier in the wilderness; straighten the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said."
Descendants
References

Adjective

desert

  1. (of places) barren, wild
  2. (usually of places) deserted, abandoned
Descendants
References

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French desert.

Noun

desert m (plural desers)

  1. desert (desolate terrain)

Descendants

Old French

Etymology

Probably borrowed from Latin dēsertum.

Noun

desert oblique singular, m (oblique plural deserz or desertz, nominative singular deserz or desertz, nominative plural desert)

  1. desert (desolate terrain)

Descendants

Romanian

Etymology

From French dessert.

Noun

desert n (plural deserturi)

  1. dessert

Declension

Declension of desert
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) desert desertul (niște) deserturi deserturile
genitive/dative (unui) desert desertului (unor) deserturi deserturilor
vocative desertule deserturilor

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from French dessert.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /děsert/
  • Hyphenation: de‧sert

Noun

dèsert m (Cyrillic spelling дѐсерт)

  1. dessert

Declension

Declension of desert
singular plural
nominative desert deserti
genitive deserta deserta
dative desertu desertima
accusative desert deserte
vocative deserte deserti
locative desertu desertima
instrumental desertom desertima

Antonyms

References

  • “desert” in Hrvatski jezični portal
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