I've always been perplexed by the fact that "diet" as a noun means "everything you eat," whereas "to diet" as a verb means "to not eat everything."

"I'm going on a diet," people will say, "just as soon as I develop some willpower or something equally implausible happens." Yet those same people will cheerfully admit that their "diet" contains a lot of pie and ice cream — or at least, I'd be cheerful to admit it. ...

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