You must have guessed by now that I am fond (enamored) of dictionaries. I find them riveting sources of information. I find in them answers to all my questions, even my ontological questions. The answers are there, ensconced in their pages, but we must learn how to find them, a task which is not always easy. For example, if we search the word "desert" (dézert) we will find "a region so arid because of little rain..." The verb is "to desert" (dizért), "leave without intending to return"... and many other definitions. Is that all? No, because at the very end of the entry for "desert"... we find: "Often deserts, reward or punishment that is deserved: get one´s just deserts." And here we find, at the end of an entry, almost hidden, the meaning we were looking for, the exact equivalent for "el merecido, justo, castigo." David got his just deserts for taking the money", "David recibió su justo castigo por llevarse el dinero." Here deserts comes from deserves.
And we have solved a bilingual lexicographical problem.
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