" desert "

[Noun]  | "des*ert" | \ ˈde-zərt \

1: arid land with usually sparse vegetation; especially : such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of sporadic rainfall annually

2: an area of water apparently devoid of life

3: a desolate or forbidding area

Origin: 13th century ;

 Middle English, "barren expanse of land (either wooded or arid), wasteland," borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin dēserta "unfrequented places, wilderness," noun derivative from neuter plural (feminine singular in Late Latin) of dēsertus "empty of people, uninhabited" {mat|desert:2|};

[Noun]  | "de*sert" | \ di-ˈzərt \

1: deserved reward or punishment —usually used in plural

2: the quality or fact of meriting reward or punishment

3: excellence, worth

Origin: 13th century ;

 Middle English desert, dissert "fact of deserving reward or punishment, worthiness, merit," borrowed from Anglo-French desert, deserte, desserte "merit, reward, fact of deserving reward or punishment, wrongful conduct, reason, cause" (also continental Old & Middle French), derivative of deservir "to deserve, merit, earn, be entitled to" {mat|deserve|};

  * Note : The derivation of Old French desert from deservir has been variously explained. Trésor de la Langue Française describes desserte as formed from the present tense base (i.e., the base lacking -v-) of desservir ("Déverbal, formé sur le radical du présent de l'indicative de desservir"). P. Ruelle points in a different direction, judging both the Old French noun deserte and the adjective desert as a variant of the past participle deservi, descending from *desérvitum, a presumed by-form of classical dēservītum (see: his "Notes sur le lexique des Isopets," Romania, vol. 101, no. 401 [1980], pp. 77-78).;

[Noun]  | "desert locust" 

1: a destructive migratory locust (Schistocerca gregaria) of southwestern Asia and parts of northern Africa

Origin: 1944 ;

[Noun]  | "desert soil" 

1: a soil that develops under sparse shrub vegetation in warm to cool arid climates with a light-colored surface soil usually underlain by calcareous material and a hardpan layer

Origin: circa 1938 ;

[Noun]  | "desert tortoise" 

1: a large burrowing land tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) of arid regions of the southwestern U.S. and adjacent Mexico

Origin: 1933 ;

[Noun]  | "desert varnish" 

1: a dark coating which is found on rocks after long exposure in desert regions and whose color is due to iron and manganese oxides

Origin: circa 1898 ;

[Noun]  | "desert island" 

1: an island where no people live

[Noun]  | "food desert" 

1: an area where little fresh produce is available for sale

Origin: 1988 ;

[Adjective]  | "des*ert" | \ ˈde-zərt \

1: desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied

2: of or relating to a desert

3: forsaken

Origin: 13th century ;

 Middle English desert, deserte "barren, uninhabited, deserted, forsaken," borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin dēsertus "empty of people, uninhabited," from past participle of dēserere "to part company with, abandon, leave uninhabited" {mat|desert:3|};

[Verb]  | "de*sert" | \ di-ˈzərt \

1: to withdraw from or leave usually without intent to return

2: to leave in the lurch

3: to abandon (military service) without leave

Origin: 1603 ;

 Borrowed from French déserter, going back to Old French, "to devastate, make uninhabited, abandon, leave," borrowed from Late Latin dēsertāre "to leave, abandon," frequentative of Latin dēserere "to part company with, abandon, leave uninhabited, leave in the lurch," from dē- {see: |de-|de-} + serere "to link together, join in a series" {mat|series|};

  * Note : Note that Dictionnaire du Moyen Français divides deserter into two lemmas, assigning the senses "devastate, make uninhabited" to a derivative of desert "barren, uninhabited" (see: {desert:2|desert:2}) and the senses "abandon, leave" to a loan from Late Latin dēsertāre.;

[Adjective]  | "desert" 

[Noun]  | "desert" 

[Noun]  | "desert" 

[Verb]  | "desert"