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diet

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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.
  • 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)