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Comment by tetrep | Hacker News Reader

A deserving; that which makes one deserving of reward or punishment; merit or demerit; good conferred, or evil inflicted, which merits an equivalent return: as, to reward or punish men according to their deserts.

"Just deserts" is a common phrase that uses it in the same way.

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Oh wow. I (non-native) never realized it only had one s, I always assumed it was "just desserts", as in, you are getting the dessert you deserve, after the food (the evil you did) :D

If I was on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, I would've picked "just desserts" as my final answer without hesitation. TIL

I (native) also did not realize this.

Native English speaker here too.

TWL (Today We Learned)

I always assumed it was one one of those odd manglings that gained traction, like irregardless.

Apparently it's spelled "deserts" and pronounced "desserts"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/just-deserts-o...

Yes. That's why people think it's "desserts."

> > > > I am very frustrated by political arguments about desert

> > > What does "desert" mean here

> A deserving [...] merit

Thanks. As a native speaker aware of "desert"'s multiple meanings and "just deserts", I think "merit", "deservedness", "appropriateness" would have been much clearer choices here. Perhaps the jarring note alone (of "desert" in this context) should have clued me in that an unusual usage was in play. Thanks again for the clarification.

desert i don't think means deserving. It comes from the latin desertus which means to "make barren or empty/forsake". I think in this context it means to have something fail or be abandoned at a critical moment.

The person you’re replying to is correct - “desert” is in some contexts an old word that’s pronounced like “dessert” but spelled with one “s” that means “the punishment that one deserves”.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/just-deserts-o...

Also, "desert" as the present tense of "deserted". As in "All my friends have deserted me." Or, "The Sgt. Major punished the deserter."

https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/desert

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