Dieting

How to spell dieting

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dieting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dieting mean?

1. verbRestricting or controlling what one eats, usually to lose weight or improve health.

Dieting in a sentence

• She has been dieting since the new year and feels much healthier.

• Constant dieting left him tired and irritable at work.

Where does dieting come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word grows out of 'diet', which English borrowed in the 1200s through Old French 'diete' from the Latin 'diaeta', itself taken from the Greek 'diaita'. The Greek word did not mean a slimming plan at all; it meant a whole 'way of life' or 'regimen', covering how a person ate, exercised, and rested. Greek physicians used it for the daily routine a doctor prescribed for health, and from there it narrowed in English to mean the food a person habitually eats and, later still, a deliberate restriction of food. The verb 'to diet' and its participle 'dieting' developed once 'diet' became something one actively did rather than simply had. The single 't' in the spelling trips people up because the stress falls on the first syllable, so the final consonant is not doubled before '-ing'.

How the word is built

• diet (from Greek diaita: way of life, regimen)
• -ing (forming the present participle and gerund)