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"desert" in seven languages

Meaningdesert

Spanish

desierto

/deˈsjeɾto/

masc.inherited

French

désert

/dezɛʁ/

masc.learned

Italian

deserto

/deˈzɛrto/

masc.learned

Portuguese

deserto

/deˈzɛhtu/

masc.learned

Romanian

deșert

/deˈʃert/

neut.inherited

As an adjective deșert keeps the old sense 'empty, vain'.

Catalan

desert

/dəˈzɛrt/

masc.learned

English

desert

/ˈdɛzɚt/

from Latin/French · Old French desert, from Latin

English → ItaliandesertdesertoCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

DĒSERTUM‘abandoned (place)’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

A desert is an 'abandoned' place: DĒSERTUM is the participle of DĒSERERE 'to forsake'. Only Spanish broke the stressed e into ie, the mark of a word that lived in speech.

English relatives: desert (to abandon), deserter

Sound laws at work

Stressed short E breaks into ie

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In a sentence

  • esEl Sáhara es el mayor desierto cálido.
  • frLe Sahara est le plus grand désert chaud.
  • itIl Sahara è il più grande deserto caldo.
  • ptO Saara é o maior deserto quente.
  • roSahara este cel mai mare deșert cald.
  • caEl Sàhara és el desert càlid més gran.
  • enThe Sahara is the largest hot desert.

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