dessert

A2 Topic:Food & Drink

US /dɪˈzɝt/ UK /dɪˈzɜːt/ See IPA manual

Homophones

desert /dɪˈzɝt/

Freq #3994

Meanings

1

noun
A sweet dish eaten at the end of a meal.

We had chocolate cake for dessert.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a sweet dish eaten at the... pudding sweet afters

Word family

Forms desserts

Derived forms dessert-platedessertfuldessertlessdessertlikedessertspoondessertwaredessertynondessertpredessert

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

dessert spoon
a spoon between a teaspoon and a tablespoon in size

Noun + noun

Simplified etymology

Dessert, recorded from the mid-16th century, comes from French desservir “to clear the table.” It denotes the sweet course served at the end of a meal.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Old French des- Middle French des- Proto-Indo-European *ser-der.? Proto-Italic *serwos Latin servus Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Latin -iō Latin serviō Old French servir Middle French servir Middle French desservir Middle French dessertbor. English dessert Borrowed from Middle French dessert, from desservir (“disserve”), from dés- (“dis-”) and servir (“serve”), thus literally meaning “removal of what has been served”. Note: It was erroneously suggested (e.g. in "Glucose syrups: Technology and App…

dessert Middle French

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Food & Drink

External links

# dessert

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /dɪˈzɝt/
**IPA (UK):** /dɪˈzɜːt/
**Frequency rank:** 3994

## Meanings
1. A sweet dish eaten at the end of a meal.

## Examples
- We had chocolate cake for dessert.

## Derived Forms
- dessert-plate
- dessertful
- dessertless
- dessertlike
- dessertspoon
- dessertware
- desserty
- nondessert
- predessert

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: dessert

## Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Old French des- Middle French des- Proto-Indo-European *ser-der.? Proto-Italic *serwos Latin servus Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Latin -iō Latin serviō Old French servir Middle French servir Middle French desservir Middle French dessertbor. English dessert Borrowed from Middle French dessert, from desservir (“disserve”), from dés- (“dis-”) and servir (“serve”), thus literally meaning “removal of what has been served”. Note: It was erroneously suggested (e.g. in "Glucose syrups: Technology and App…

## AI Etymology
dessert was borrowed from Middle French dessert, from desservir (“disserve”), from dés- (“dis-”) and servir (“serve”), thus literally meaning “removal of what has been served”. The current sense is A sweet dish eaten at the end of a meal. English relatives and later formations include dessert-plate, dessertful, dessertless.

## Topics
- Food & Drink

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