desert

From Middle English desert ("wilderness"), from Old French desert, from Latin dēsertum, the past participle of dēserō, "to abandon." It's a false cognate of the Egyptian word dšrt, despite the tempting resemblance.

The word displaced the native Old English wēsten as the word for wasteland, carrying with it the sense of a place forsaken rather than merely dry or empty.

The verb "desert," meaning to abandon, comes from French déserter and traces back to the same Latin root dēserō — so leaving a place and the place itself share the same core idea of being left.