My daughter recently asked me whether the correct word in this idiom was “deserts” or “desserts”. Feeling cocky, I asserted that the right word was obviously “desserts”, as in the sweet reward for a job well done. Well, I was wrong. And my teenager was gleeful.
The word “desert” means “that which is deserved”. It comes from the French. And it is used today only in this idiom. Since in every other case the word “desert” is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable and intended to imply a landscape with little water, I and countless others assumed that the Sahara DESERT scenario was the only usage of the word. How wrong we were.
Although there are various pastry shops with the name “Just Desserts”, if you want to imply that someone has gotten what he or she deserved, you want to use the word with one “s”: just deserts. Since the idiom often refers to something negative, it’s just as well that it was disconnected from chocolate.
He was playing around and she broke the wedding engagement, so he got his just deserts.
The suicide bomber tripped and detonated himself without causing other injuries; he got his just deserts.
I used to think I could diet by just eating appetizers, but now I know the secret: just desserts.
I’m still adding to the list of botched idioms so please keep sending me examples. Remember “for all intensive purposes,”and “mute point”? Someone sent me a note that he had overheard someone refer to a person as being “curled up in the feeble position”. Fetuses are generally feeble but they deserve their own adjective anyway.