desert
EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English desert, deseert, from Old French deserte, from deservir (“to deserve”), from Vulgar Latin dēserviō (“to gain or merit by giving service”).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɪˈzɜːt/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /dɪˈzɝt/, /dəˈzɝt/
- Homophone: dessert
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t
NounEdit
desert (plural deserts)
- (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 216596634:
- 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 688657546:
- "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."
- 1600, John Dowland, Flow My Tears
Usage notesEdit
Sometimes confused with dessert, especially in set phrases such as just deserts.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English desert (“wilderness”), from Old French desert, from Latin dēsertum, past participle of dēserō (“to abandon”). Displaced native Old English wēsten.
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈdɛzət/
- (General American) enPR: dĕ'zə(r)t, IPA(key): /ˈdɛzɚt/
Audio (US), noun (file)
NounEdit
desert (countable and uncountable, plural deserts)
- A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
- 1713, Alexander Pope, “Windsor-Forest. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, OCLC 43265629:
- 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.
- (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.
- 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?
- 1858, William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; Or, Two Years in Victoria (page 54)
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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AdjectiveEdit
desert (not comparable)
- 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 964384981, 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 964384981, Luke ix:10:
- He […] went aside privately into a desert place.
- 1697, “The Eighth Book of the Æneis”, in Virgil; John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432, lines 252–255, page 441:
- 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 termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
Etymology 3Edit
Borrowed from French déserter, from Late Latin desertō, from Latin desertus, from deserō (“abandon”).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɪˈzɜːt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /dɪˈzɝt/, /dəˈzɝt/
Audio (US), verb (file)
VerbEdit
desert (third-person singular simple present deserts, present participle deserting, simple past and past participle deserted)
- 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.
- To leave one's duty or post, especially to leave a military or naval unit without permission.
- Anyone found deserting will be punished.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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AnagramsEdit
CatalanEdit
EtymologyEdit
First attested 14th century[1]. From Latin dēsertum, possibly a semi-learned term.
PronunciationEdit
Audio (file)
NounEdit
desert m (plural deserts)
- desert (desolate terrain)
Further readingEdit
- “desert” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “desert” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “desert” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
ReferencesEdit
- ^ “desert”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2022
FriulianEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Latin dēsertum (in this form possibly a semi-learned term; cf. the variant form).
NounEdit
desert m (plural deserts)
Middle EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Old French deserte (“deserved”), from deservir (“to deserve”), from Vulgar Latin dēserviō (“to gain or merit by giving service”).
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
desert (plural desertes)
- The situation of deserving something.
- That which is deserved or merited; desert.
- An action or deed which invites or prompts judgement.
- worth, virtuousness, benefit; that which is good.
DescendantsEdit
- English: desert
ReferencesEdit
- “dē̆sert, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “desert, n.1.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1895.
Etymology 2Edit
From Old French desert, from Latin dēsertum, past participle of dēserō (“to abandon”).
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
desert (plural desertes)
- 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."
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “dē̆sert, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
AdjectiveEdit
desert
DescendantsEdit
- English: desert
ReferencesEdit
- “dē̆sert, ppl.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Middle FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old French desert.
NounEdit
desert m (plural desers)
- desert (desolate terrain)
DescendantsEdit
- French: désert
Old FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
Probably borrowed from Latin dēsertum.
NounEdit
desert m (oblique plural deserz or desertz, nominative singular deserz or desertz, nominative plural desert)
- desert (desolate terrain)
DescendantsEdit
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
desert n (plural deserturi)
DeclensionEdit
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-CroatianEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
dèsert m (Cyrillic spelling дѐсерт)
DeclensionEdit
AntonymsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “desert” in Hrvatski jezični portal