Lenten belongs to Lent: the forty days before Easter when some Christians eat less, skip meat, or stop something they enjoy. Churches treat it as a serious, quiet wait for Easter. Though actually, the season itself is called Lent; Lenten is usually the describing word that sits in front of another word — a Lenten fast, Lenten food, the Lenten season. People do say “Lenten” as a shortcut for that time, but “Lent” is the name you will hear most. It is a church-calendar word, not a word for ordinary dieting. And it is not lent, the past of lend — that only shares a sound. In Taiwan, Catholic churches say 四旬期; some Protestant churches say 預苦期.