desert
pronunciation
How to pronounce desert in British English:
UK [ˈdezət]
How to pronounce desert in American English:
US [ˈdezərt]
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- Noun:
- an arid region with little or no vegetation
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- Verb:
- leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
- desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army
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- Adjective:
- located in a dismal or remote area; desolate
Word Origin
- desert
- desert: English has three distinct words desert, which come from two separate sources. Desert ‘what one deserves’ [13] (now usually used in the plural) is related, as its meaning suggests, to the verb deserve. It comes from Old French desert or deserte, which were formed from the past participle of deservir ‘deserve’. (Dessert ‘sweet course’ [17] is its first cousin, coming from French desservir ‘clear the table’ – literally ‘unserve’ – a compound verb formed, like deserve, from the verb serve but with the prefix dis- rather than de-.) The noun desert ‘barren region’ [13] and the verb desert ‘abandon’ [15] both come ultimately from dēsertus, the past participle of Latin dēserere ‘abandon’.This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- denoting reversal and serere ‘join’ (a derivative of which gave English ‘serried ranks’).=> serve; serried
- desert (v.)
- "to leave one's duty," late 14c., from Old French deserter (12c.) "leave," literally "undo or sever connection," from Late Latin desertare, frequentative of Latin deserere "to abandon, to leave, forsake, give up, leave in the lurch," from de- "undo" (see de-) + serere "join together, put in a row" (see series). Military sense is first recorded 1640s. Related: Deserted; deserting.
- desert (n.1)
- "wasteland," early 13c., from Old French desert (12c.) "desert, wilderness, wasteland; destruction, ruin," from Late Latin desertum (source of Italian diserto, Old Provençal dezert, Spanish desierto), literally "thing abandoned" (used in Vulgate to translate "wilderness"), noun use of neuter past participle of Latin deserere "forsake" (see desert (v.)). Sense of "waterless, treeless region" was in Middle English and gradually became the main meaning. Commonly spelled desart in 18c., which is not etymological but at least avoids confusion with the other two senses of the word. Classical Latin indicated this idea with deserta, plural of desertus.
- desert (n.2)
- "suitable reward or punishment" (now usually plural and with just), c. 1300, from Old French deserte, noun use of past participle of deservir "be worthy to have," ultimately from Latin deservire "serve well" (see deserve).
Example
- 1. Almost half of the total country is uninhabitable desert .
- 2. The story is that he ran out of water just after crossing a desert .
- 3. But one sandy desert hillside shines jet-black .
- 4. True friends don 't desert each other when one is facing trouble .
- 5. By then , all of bob 's men had combined to desert him .