desert
Never desert desert travelers.
The sentence advises against abandoning travelers who are crossing arid land.
Meanings
to abandon, leave behind, or forsake
- He deserted his post during the night.
- Don't desert your friends in their hour of need.
a barren, arid region, typically with little vegetation
- The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert.
- Phoenix sits in the middle of the Sonoran desert.
Word origin
Two etymologically distinct words: the verb /dɪˈzɜːrt/ ('to abandon') is from Old French deserter, from Latin dēserere ('to leave, forsake'), formed from dē- ('away') + serere ('to join, link'). The noun /ˈdɛzərt/ ('arid land') is from Latin dēsertum ('something abandoned, a wasteland'), from the same root — but in modern English the two have diverged in stress and meaning.
Fun fact
The phrase 'just desserts' (one's deserved reward or punishment) uses a third 'desert', pronounced /dɪˈzɜːrt/ like the verb but spelled like the noun — meaning 'what one deserves.' Many writers misspell this as 'just desserts' (with sweet courses) — a homophone trap that even careful editors fall into.