Proof reading?

There there

Sorry, don't have time to read all the contributions but just time to say I have done my share of proof reading and deserts is correct. ( from the same root as deserved)

I am with you MawBroonsback!

I spent most of my teaching career telling people to USE THE DICTIONARY!

Nothing wrong with Just Deserts. It's fine.

Do it matter...really!?

Yes patronising Maw, we can't all be well read , erudite, correctly schooled, or grammar 'perfect'

No?
Universal education to 16 ?
Good schools available to all?
If you are going to start a thread about a perceived spelling mistake , is it really so silly to check the facts?
Not patronising, common sense.

BradfordLass72
I wish they had been called 'Just Desserts' as I love to imagine vigilantes as meringues or profiteroles (what does it profiterole a man if he gains his just desserts but loses his soul?" to paraphrase or is it parachute? Mark 8:36)

Surely that should be "loses his sole"?

Where u bin Maw??

I am with sodapop. Yes, Just deserts may be technically correct but in the understanding of the modern age, to say to someone who has done something wrong 'You will get your ;just desserts' makes absolute sense in the sense of deserving what comes after as a result of their error. ie. no ice cream, just a dry biscuit.

Be careful if you get too pedantic, I will start picking up any one who uses the word 'nice' incorrectly: Five hundred years ago, when nice was first used in English, it meant "foolish or stupid." This is not as surprising as it may seem, since it came through early French from the Latin nescius, meaning "ignorant." By the 16th century, the sense of being "very particular" or "finicky" had developed.

Monica you are overthinking this!
“Deserts” are pure and simple “what you deserve” , totally unconnected with “desserts”

dessert ⧫ pudding (Brit)
Qu’est-ce -ce que vous désirez comme dessert ? What would you like for dessert?

The quotation on the Commando memorial would be a ridiculous allusion to small portions of ice cream if you followed that line of reasoning

“ He either fears his foe too much
Or his deserts are small
Who dares not put it to the touch
To win, or lose it all
There is no more connection between the two words than “bear” and “bare”
(But don’t get me started on “Bare with me ....”)

Maw I am aware of the difference, but sodapop's understanding of the phrase, and therefore how it should be spelled, is quite widely assumed and used now by many people. In other words, what words and phrases are understood to mean (and how they are spelled) changes with time. The fact that desert and desserts has two entirely different meanings is irrelevant. Many people think it is spelled 'desserts' and interprete it as I suggested. The result is the same, the meaning of the phrase, as a whole, though not each individual word remains the same.
'what happened to someone/a group serves you right, after what you did before''

There are other phrases and words where similar things have happened, inevitable I cannot think of any immediately, but I have noted them in my mind in the past.

I am absolutely with Monica.

All my life I have understood the saying to mean ..... earning/deserving of a 'dessert'.

Clearly the true meaning has totally escaped my learning.

Happily every day is a school day.

Thanks MOnica I don't feel such a total prat now.

The fact that desert and desserts has two entirely different meanings is irrelevant
M0nica
How can you say this and then the rest of it?
I would quote Lewis Carroll perhaps?

“Then you should say what you mean” the March Hare went on
“I do” Alice hastily replied “at least I mean what I say , that’s the same thing you know”
“Not the same thing a bit” said the Hatter.

M0nica, Just because a lot of people say something does not make it right - look at all the times we read “loose weight” and the like here on GN.

However, I give up.
I’m out. .

Ooh, I do enjoy a good scrap about proof-reading and/or word usage. I remember quite a heated debate on Facebook (I think) about 'You've got another thing/think coming'.

I'll just drop that in here and step away quietly...

Coolgran65
Just deserts, or even just desserts, are usually retribution to someone unpleasant.
How did that cause you to think they might have earned a bowl of trifle?

no ice cream, just a dry biscuit

I just spotted that one.

Actually, I always assumed that this particular thread was only read and enjoyed by those with a good grounding in grammar and spelling, or those genuinely puzzled by English usage.

It's called Pendants' corner, which should give you a hint that most of us deplore the modern tendency to think that spelling and grammar do not matter.

Perhaps some who sidle past the Pedants' Corner signpost are unaware of what a pedant is.

Oh for goodness' sake you lot: some of us have more pressing concerns to expend our mental energy on.

So why waste energy complaining about pedantry Jaxie?

OMG are we back to this?
The author was perfectly right - what is there left to say?

We can just have a squabble about why anyone would care about such things, anyway.
Should be fun, MawB, don't you think?

Perhaps that you will all get your just deserts (but no pudding)!

Just to lighten the tone.
I am dyslexic. Despite this I try to complete an easy crossword puzzle every day. When I get stuck for an answer, I use a crossword solver app.
I recently typed in Asian dessert . I nearly fell of my chair laughing when the result came back Apple pie! What I was actually looking for was the Gobi. What’s an extra s between friends. ?