759: Desert versus Dessert Jan 5, 2017

A fairly common tip to remembering the difference between 'desert' and 'dessert' is that generally one would want more dessert so it has more S's. The tricky thing is, the phrase, "get one's just deserts' is seen almost as often as "get one's just desserts" according to the Oxford English Corpus. While few people then would question the meaning of either one, the word 'desert' or more often 'deserts', pronounced in this case like, 'dessert' has a less-commonly known meaning of a person's entitlement to punishment or reward, so while one may deserve dessert, that would not be applicable in the same way as it is meant in the phrase, "one's just deserts'.