[taneq]

The biggest scam the weight loss industry ever pulled on society was to redefine "diet" from "a description of what you eat" to "a temporary modification to what you're eating".

You don't "go on a diet", you HAVE a diet. And if your diet is what is making you fat, then to not be fat, you have to change your diet, permanently.

[thepete2]

In German, they're still separate words, I think "diet" made its way into German and became "Diät".

[pluma]

Ironically, the wages of government representatives are also called "diets" in German. I'd say "diet" for "Ernährung" just fell out of use at some point and was reintroduced when diet fads became a thing.

[gaius]

The Vietnamese parliament is called the Diet but I don’t think it’s etymologically related.

[sshine]

In Danish there's both "en diæt" (what you eat, permanent) and "på diæt" (on a diet, temporary).

I didn't even think about the fact that that word didn't always have the temporary meaning of the word.

[hvidgaard]

The meaning is more fluent. The doctor can put you on a strict diet with a mealplan "lægen har sat mig på en streng diæt med kostplan og det hele", that isn't necessarily temporary.

[MindTwister]

There is also "slankekur" which more or less translates to "slimming-cure"