diet

English has two nouns spelled diet: food and a regimen of food, from Greek diaita “way of life”, and a formal assembly, from Medieval Latin dieta, from the same Greek word but associated with Latin dies “day”.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈdaɪ.ət/^[4]

diet¹ food

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English diete,^[1][5] borrowed from Old French diete (“diet, pittance, fare”) (13th century),^[2][1] from Medieval Latin dieta, from Latin diaeta “prescribed way of life”,^[2][1] from Ancient Greek δίαιτα (díaita, “way of life, regimen, dwelling”),^[2][1][6] related to diaitasthai “to lead one's life” and diaitan, originally “to separate, select” food and drink, also “to arbitrate”,^[2][1][5] apparently from *di-ainysthai “to take apart”, from dia- “apart” and ainysthai “to take”.^[2][1] Watkins traces ainysthai to Proto-Indo-European *ai- (“to give, allot”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Regular food: probably before 1200 in Barnhart, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[1] about 1200 in Etymonline,^[2] before 1225 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A customary way of eating, and a course of food regulated by a physician, often restricted, are from the late 14th century,^[2][7] hence put someone on a diet from the mid-15th century.^[2] An allowance for living expenses is from before 1483, now obsolete.^[7] The verb, to regulate one's food for the sake of health, is from the late 14th century,^[2] and to restrict food especially to lose weight from the 1650s;^[2] an obsolete word for this was banting.^[2] The adjective, of drinks or foods with reduced sugar or calories, as in Diet Coke, is from 1963, originally American.^[2][7]

Timeline

• a. 1200 – food.^[1]
• late 14th century – a regulated diet; verb.^[2]
• mid-15th century – put on a diet.^[2]
• 1650s – to diet to lose weight.^[2]
• 1963 – diet drinks.^[2][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The usual food and drink of a person or animal.
2. A selection of foods restricted or regulated, as for medical reasons or to lose weight.
3. Something provided or enjoyed regularly: a diet of television.

Verb

1. To eat according to a regulated system, especially to lose weight.

Adjective

1. Having fewer calories than usual: diet soda.

Word family

• dietary
• dieter
• dietetic
• dietitian

diet² assembly

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dyet,^[5] borrowed from Medieval Latin dieta (“day's journey; day's work, wages; meeting of councillors”),^[1][6][8] a variant of diaeta “daily office of the Church, daily duty, assembly”,^[1][2] from the same Greek díaita as the food word,^[1][2] but associated with Latin dies “day”.^[1][2][3] Medieval Latin dieta was used to translate German Tag as a day of assembly, as in Reichstag.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A formal assembly: about 1450 in Barnhart,^[1] the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[2] A day's journey, now obsolete, is from about 1290.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A national lawmaking body is from 1565.^[1] Since about 1600 English and French writers have used it of the legislative assemblies of Germany and Austria,^[2] as in the Diet of Worms, where Martin Luther committed himself to Protestant reform.^[3] In the 17th century it was also the metal scraped from gold and silver plate assayed day by day at the Mint.^[6] In Scotland a diet is the meeting of an ecclesiastical assembly or court on a fixed day.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – a day's journey.^[7]
• c. 1450 – an assembly.^[1]
• 1565 – a national legislature.^[1]
• c. 1600 – of German assemblies.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A formal assembly or legislature, as in Japan or formerly in the Holy Roman Empire.
2. (Scotland) The meeting of a court or church assembly on a fixed day.

Related words

• diary

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)