Diet (Lat. dies, 'day'), a meeting of delegates or of dignitaries, held from day to day, for legislative or ecclesiastical purposes; the title was afterwards extended to such bodies themselves. The term is applied to the sessions of church assemblies in Scotland, but its chief use is as the specific title of the administrative assemblies of the German empire and some other continental states (see GERMANY).
Desertion of the Diet, in Scots law. The proceedings under a criminal libel are in Scotland spoken of technically as a diet, and when the libel is abandoned by the public prosecutor, or where he fails to appear, he is said to desert the diet. The effect of a judgment of the court declaring that the diet has been deserted, is to free the accused from prosecution under the particular libel or writ, but not to prevent a new process being raised on the same grounds.
Dietrich of Bern. See THEODORIC.