wasty
Resembling a waste or wasteland; desert; (by extension) deserted, desolate.
But, happily, we meet with circumstances that break in upon this routine and monotony, and we thank God, as Mungo Park did, when the moss peeped up at him from the wasty desert.
Where it comes from
From Middle English wasti, westy, westi, westiȝ (“desolate, deserted; destitute”), from Old English wēstiġ (“wasty, desert, desolate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōstīg (“waste-like, deserted”), equivalent to waste + -y. Cognate with Scots wasty, waisty (“desolate, deserted; unoccupied”), Dutch woestig (“inhospitable, rugged, wild”), German Low German wööstig (“desolate”).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry wasty (CC BY-SA 4.0).