Dined and Eaten
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Tap any rung for its meaning.
Two stepping stones: the R (rung 1, for diner) and the L (rung 2, for liner) — each borrowed to keep a rung a real word, then given back before the end. There may be several par routes — the census above shows which ones climbers actually took.
Past tense of dine: to eat a formal or main meal.
Dine comes from Old French 'disner', meaning to have the main meal of the day, thought to derive from Latin 'dis-' plus 'jejunare', meaning to break a fast. It entered English in the medieval period. The related word 'dinner' shares the same origin.
Full entry on Wiktionary ↗Past participle of eat: to consume food by chewing and swallowing.
Eat comes from Old English 'etan', a very ancient Germanic word related to German 'essen' and Latin 'edere'. It is one of the most fundamental and oldest words in the English language. The Latin root also gives us 'edible'.
Full entry on Wiktionary ↗Definitions give each word’s most common meaning — the full entries live at Wiktionary.