It is at this time of year that people like to go “on a diet”. By which they mean a different diet, because, unless they are dead, they are on a diet already. It is not a new word. It is recorded first in the Ancrene Riwle, the early thirteenth-century book of instruction for anchoresses. The passage in question is about Jesus’ sufferings on the Cross: “Understondeth thet dei hwuch wes his diete i the ilke blodletunge se baleful & se bitter.” We might translate it thus: “Think about his diet on that day of bloodletting, so baleful and bitter.” It then goes on to say that he was given no wine, ale or water, even when he complained of thirst. Diet, in other words, meant normal consumption of food and drink, as it does today. The word came into E