Desert Dessert

No, this isn’t a post about low-carb dieting. It’s about part of what makes reading dictionaries entertaining, even fun. “Desert” (the verb: to abandon) was derived from a different Latin root (deserere: forsake, abandon) than “desert” (the noun meaning deserving a certain treatment for one’s behavior, as in “just deserts”) was derived from a _different_ Latin term (desevire: serve well; de–~completely, sevire–serve), while “desert” (the noun meaning wasteland, wilderness, barren area) was derived from the same Latin root as the verb meaning to abandon.

And “dessert,” of course has nothing to do with any of the meanings of “desert” noted above, although it is pronounced similarly to ONE of the words spelled “desert.”

Yeh, reading dictionaries is just plain fun. ? Also, as James D. Nicoll has so infamously noted, “We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

GOOD dictionaries can unlock these words, provide linguistic and even historical context, and thus greatly enrich one’s experience of English, both spoken and written. Why more folks don’t read dictionaries for pleasure, I just can’t fathom.

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