Dieter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual practicing controlled eating habits to manage weight or pursue health improvements engages in a specific dietary regimen
2. A person committed to a nutritional strategy for weight control or health goals often adheres to distinct food guidelines
3. Someone who restricts their food consumption to achieve or maintain a particular body weight or health condition

Etymology: A dieter is simply someone who diets, and the word is about as transparent as English compounds get: "diet" with the agent suffix "-er" attached. The suffix has a long pedigree of its own. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European adjective-forming element that passed through Proto-Italic and Latin "-arius", meaning a person connected with or occupied in something, and it reached English through Old French "-ier" before settling as the "-er" we use today. So the ending that makes "dieter" was already doing the same job in Latin, where "-arius" turned nouns into names for people concerned with them. The base word "diet" carries the more interesting history. It came into English from Old French "diete", which traces back to Latin "diaeta", itself borrowed from Greek "diaita", meaning a way of life or mode of living. Only later did the sense narrow to food, so the older meaning of the root was much broader than the eating habits the word now suggests.

Synonyms: weight watcher, calorie counter

Antonyms: gourmand, glutton