It's weird how this happened. Of course we all eat a diet. I assume magazines in the 1950's started talking about specific diets, like the "grapefruit diet" and then it got shortened from "I'm on a ___ diet" to "I'm on a diet."
Terms change, so I guess those of us who consider the word "diet" as "habitual food intake" have to get used to the fact that it now means "restricted intake."
Aha, I looked up on an etymology site:
Quote:
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"regular food," c.1225, from O.Fr. diete, from M.L. dieta "parliamentary assembly," also "a day's work, diet, daily food allowance," from L. diaeta "prescribed way of life," from Gk. diaita, originally "way of life, regimen, dwelling," from diaitasthai "lead one's life," and from diaitan, originally "separate, select" (food and drink), freq. of *diainysthai "take apart," from dia- "apart" + ainysthai "take," from PIE base *ai- "to give, allot." Often with a sense of restriction since 14c.; hence put (someone) on a diet (c.1440). The verb meaning "to regulate oneself as to food" (especially against fatness) is from 1660. An obsolete word for this is banting (q.v.). The adj. in this sense (Diet Coke, etc.) is from 1963, originally Amer.Eng.
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So I guess while I was right that the base meaning refers to a regular food intake, the connotation of restriction is actually older than I thought.