just desserts of personal wrongdoing

[EUNJJUNG]

I'm reading a book "The Craft of Argument" by Joseph M. Williams and I have one question.

"The latter is dishonorable, motivated by deceit and the desire to protect oneself, at any cost, form receiving the just desserts of personal wrongdoing."

What does the underlined phrase mean?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I'm reading a book "The Craft of Argument" by Joseph M. Williams, and I have one question.

"The latter is dishonorable, motivated by deceit and the desire to protect oneself, at any cost, from receiving the just deserts of personal wrongdoing."

What does the underlined phrase mean?

Google: just deserts definition (with no double-S).

Then Google: dessert definition.(with a double-S).

If you still need help, tell us what's confusing you.

 

[GoesStation]

The phrase just deserts confuses native speakers too. The word "deserts" is pronounced the same as "desserts". It's pronounced differently from and not related to the arid places called "deserts". It's derived from the same root as "deserve". In modern English it only appears in the phrase in question.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The phrase just deserts confuses native speakers too. The word "deserts" is pronounced the same as "desserts". It's pronounced differently from and not related to the arid places called "deserts". It's derived from the same root as "deserve". In modern English it only appears in the phrase in question.

Desert trivia:

In Maine, USA, the town of Bar Harbor is on Mount Desert Island. Desert gets pronounced both ways: with the accent on the first or second syllable. The reason it's sometimes called de-SERT is that the original French explorer who named it said it was uninhabited: deSERTed.

(Of course, he pronounced it dez-AIR. French is a silly language.)

 

[GoesStation]