It’s one of my favorite pieces of spelling trivia.
People assume it should be spelled “just desserts” because of the pronunciation. It’s spelled “just deserts” because it’s an antiquated noun derived from the same root as “deserve” (and it’s pronounced like that for the same reason).
You sound like the type of person who defends the misspellings of words until it becomes accepted in dictionaries, so we no longer have a word to distinguish dirt from ice cream.
When you see the word “desert,” do you automatically think of a sweet delicious treat? Or a barren wasteland of sand? Or do you go into a moment of mental gymnastics to determine the context and whether or not the writer gives a fuck about proper spelling?
It’s one of my favorite pieces of spelling trivia.
People assume it should be spelled “just desserts” because of the pronunciation. It’s spelled “just deserts” because it’s an antiquated noun derived from the same root as “deserve” (and it’s pronounced like that for the same reason).
You sound like the type of person who defends the misspellings of words until it becomes accepted in dictionaries, so we no longer have a word to distinguish dirt from ice cream.
No, I’m the type of person who knows interesting trivia and backs it up with sources when called out by people who are too lazy to do a basic search:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_(philosophy)
When you see the word “desert,” do you automatically think of a sweet delicious treat? Or a barren wasteland of sand? Or do you go into a moment of mental gymnastics to determine the context and whether or not the writer gives a fuck about proper spelling?