jBrAD's Idiom Police

photo credit: Cyrus McCrimmon - the Denver Post photo credit: www.blueplanetbiome.org

Okay, it's not that we ENJOY being smart-asses about terms like "tenterhooks" and "the Five Senses". It's just that...well...uh...

Hm. Come to think of it, maybe we DO enjoy being smart-asses. I mean, we're only human, right?

So here's another one. It's "Just Deserts" Not "Just Desserts"

We all know that the expression means. It refers to someone who gets what's coming to them, whether bad or good. Usually bad, though. King Lear trusting the wrong daughters. Anakin Skywalker trusting the Dark Side. Rupert Murdoch. That kind of thing.

The misconception stems from the fact that most of us are unfamiliar with the word "desert" (pronounced "DEEzert"), which means, more or less, "that which you deserve". Instead, when you see the word "desert", you think of "dry sandy wasteland" (which is pronounced "DEHzert").

"DEEzert" and "DEHzert", both spelled "desert", have their origins in two different Latin words. The word "desert", as in hot sandy wasteland, is derived from the Latin word deserere, meaning to forsake. The word "desert",  as in "to get what's coming to you", comes from the word deservire, which is also the origin of the word "deserve".

To further confuse things, "dessert" (pronounced "duhZERT"),  as in the sweet confection,  comes from the Old French word "desservir"meaning to "clear the table", which is why this course comes last in the meal!

So to sum up: the pronunciation of "just desert" as in "just DEEsert" starts to make more sense when you remember it has the same origin as the word "deserve". The expression "just desert" actually now makes complete sense, while "just desserts" which makes no sense at all, unless one has eaten all of one's vegetables (even the Brussels Sprouts") and awaits one's "just desserts".

You gotta LOVE this crazy language. 

source: www.misconceptionjunction.com