The correct phrase is “just deserts”, meaning to receive what one deserves. It is often misspelled as “dessert only” due to confusion with the word “desert”. The word has two meanings, one referring to an arid wasteland and the other to deserving. The phrase has been in use since the mid-13th century. False origins include a reward at the end of a meal, but the truth is simply getting what one deserves.
The expression dessert only is a common misspelling of the current idiom deserts only, which simply means to receive what one deserves. It is one of the most commonly misspelled idiomatic expressions, because it uses an archaic word that most people are no longer familiar with. This type of spelling mistake based on a misunderstanding of a word, or a misunderstanding of its context, is often referred to as an egg.
The expression just deserts is pronounced only desserts, as if using the English word for an after-dinner dessert, “dessert”. Most people, when they see the word “desert,” pronounce it differently, as if it were a large area of barren land, complete with sand dunes or palm trees. This is an understandable confusion, as the alternate meaning and accompanying pronunciation used in this expression have not been widely used in over a hundred years.
There are two words to consider here. The first is the word “desert”, as in “Lawrence of Arabia spent many years traveling in the desert”, meaning “arid wasteland”. This word comes from the same root as the word “desert”, as in “The soldier left his company”, meaning “to abandon”. The common root here is the Latin word deserere, meaning to abandon, which made its way through French and Middle English. The secondary meaning of the word, however, with a similar pronunciation of “dessert” comes from an entirely different root. This usage, as in “he got what was coming to him – his righteous deserts,” comes from the Latin deservire via French. This sense of the term is analogous to the word “to deserve,” which originates from the same root. The pronunciation makes much more sense when you consider the word “deserve”.
It should be noted that the use of desert in the sense of deserving has been in use in English since the mid-13th century. In fact, the use of the expression can already be seen at the end of the 16th century, in the line “On a pillory, for all the world to see: a desert just for such impiety”.
Many people, due to the confusion resulting from the pronunciation, have invented their own etymologies and folk meanings for this phrase. The most common of these false origins is that desserts only refer to the reward you get at the end of the meal – your dessert – and by extension can be used metaphorically for any kind of reward at the end of a job well done. While this is an admirable attempt to explain the meaning, the truth is much simpler: it’s about getting exactly what you deserve.
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