Deseret

From the Book of Mormon, in which the word is said to mean honey bee in the language of the Jaredites.

• IPA^(key): /dɛz.əˈɹɛt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Deseret (uncountable)

1. (chiefly historical) A state, proposed in 1849 and never recognized, which would have included most of Utah and Nevada and parts of other states.
   • 1872, Mark Twain, Roughing It, Appendix A

     In 1849 the Mormons organized a "free and independent" government and erected the "State of Deseret," with Brigham Young as its head. But the very next year Congress deliberately snubbed it and created the "Territory of Utah" out of the same accumulation of mountains, sage-brush, alkali and general desolation, -- but made Brigham Governor of it.

2. A script, invented in Utah, conceived of as a radical reform and replacement of the Latin script, intended for writing English phonetically. Example: the word seven in Deseret is 𐑅𐐯𐑂𐐮𐑌.

• Deseret alphabet
• State of Deseret

• reested, steered