Careful Words

diet (n.)

diet (v.)

Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet;

In short, my deary, kiss me, and be quiet.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1690-1762): A Summary of Lord Lyttelton's Advice.

  The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Polite Conversation. Dialogue ii.

Use three Physicians,—

Still-first Dr. Quiet;

Next Dr. Mery-man,

And Dr. Dyet.

Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum (edition of 1607).

Thou art all the comfort

The gods will diet me with.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.