Inpolitics, adiet (/ˈdaɪ.ət/DY-ət) is a formaldeliberative assembly or legislature. The term is used for some assemblies such as the GermanImperial Diet (the general assembly of theImperial Estates of theHoly Roman Empire), as well as a designation for modern-day legislative bodies of certain countries and states such as theNational Diet of Japan, or the GermanBundestag, the Federal Diet.
The term (also in the nutritional sense) might be derived fromMedieval Latindieta, meaning both "parliamentary assembly" and "daily food allowance", from earlierLatindiaeta, possibly from the Greekδιαιτησία ("arbitration"),[1] orClassical Greekδίαιτα (diaita), meaning "way of living", and hence also "diet" (regular food), "regular (daily) work".[citation needed]
Through afalse etymology, reflected in Latin spelling change in medieval Europe that replaced theae withe, the worddiaeta came to be associated with another Latin worddies, which means "day". Day thus came to be used in postclassical Europe in the sense of "an assembly" and retroactively explained that the day referred to the day of the assembly meeting.[2]
The association withdies is reflected in theGerman language's use ofTagung (meeting) and also-tag, meaning not only "day", as inMontag (Monday) but also "parliament", "council", or other legislative chamber, as inBundestag orReichstag for national parliaments, andLandtag for regional assemblies.[3]
In this sense, it commonly refers to theImperial Diet assemblies of theHoly Roman Empire:
After theSecond Peace of Thorn of 1466, a German-language[citation needed]Prussian dietLandtag was held in the lands ofRoyal Prussia, a province of Poland inpersonal union with theking of Poland.
TheCroatian word for a legislative assembly issabor (from the verbsabrati se, "to assemble"); in historic contexts it is often translated with "diet" in English, as in "theDiet of Dalmatia" (Dalmatinski sabor), "the Croatian Diet" (Hrvatski sabor), "the Hungarian-Croatian Diet" (Ugarsko-hrvatski sabor), orDiet of Bosnia (Bosansko-hercegovački sabor).
TheDiet of Hungary, customarily called together every three years inSzékesfehérvár,Buda orPressburg, was also called "Diéta" in theHabsburg Empire before the1848 revolution.
TheRiksdag of the Estates was the diet of the four estates ofSweden, from the 15th century until 1866. TheDiet of Finland was the successor to the Riksdag of the Estates in theGrand Duchy of Finland, from 1809 to 1906.
The Swiss legislature was theTagsatzung (French:Diète) before theFederal Assembly replaced it in the mid-19th century.
ThePolish–LithuanianSejm was sometimes called a diet.[4]