adept
[ adjective uh-dept; noun ad-ept, uh-dept ]
/ adjective əˈdɛpt; noun ˈæd ɛpt, əˈdɛpt /
adjective
very skilled; proficient; expert: an adept juggler.
noun ad·ept [ad-ept, uh-dept] /ˈæd ɛpt, əˈdɛpt/
a skilled or proficient person; expert.
Origin of adept
historical usage of adept
The Latin noun
adepti “those who have attained knowledge of the esoteric secrets of alchemy,” seems first to have appeared in the works of the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus, and later, in the works of the Flemish chemist and physician Jan Baptista van Helmont. Twice in
Ulysses, James Joyce uses the noun
adept in reference to Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society.
The noun adept originally meant “one who has gained knowledge of the of alchemy, the occult, hermetic philosophy, and magic,” which is Joyce’s use of the word. As both noun and adjective, it developed the more general sense “(a person) highly skilled or proficient in a subject.” The adjective adept appears about a quarter of a century before the noun, but they have the same etymology, coming from Latin adeptus, the perfect participle of adipiscī “to overtake, catch up with, obtain, achieve.”
Adipiscī is a compound formation of the preposition and prefix ad, ad-, here in the sense of “reaching,” and the verb apiscī “to seize hold of, grasp.” Apiscī is a frequentative verb formed from the rare verb apere “to fasten, attach, bind,” whose perfect participle aptus “tied, bound, connected, fitted with, ready for” is very common in Latin and is the source of English apt.
The noun adept originally meant “one who has gained knowledge of the of alchemy, the occult, hermetic philosophy, and magic,” which is Joyce’s use of the word. As both noun and adjective, it developed the more general sense “(a person) highly skilled or proficient in a subject.” The adjective adept appears about a quarter of a century before the noun, but they have the same etymology, coming from Latin adeptus, the perfect participle of adipiscī “to overtake, catch up with, obtain, achieve.”
Adipiscī is a compound formation of the preposition and prefix ad, ad-, here in the sense of “reaching,” and the verb apiscī “to seize hold of, grasp.” Apiscī is a frequentative verb formed from the rare verb apere “to fasten, attach, bind,” whose perfect participle aptus “tied, bound, connected, fitted with, ready for” is very common in Latin and is the source of English apt.
OTHER WORDS FROM adept
Words nearby adept
Example sentences from the Web for unadept
They foresee merely results; and their handling of the means to an end often is singularly clumsy and unadept.
The Eddy |Clarence L. Cullen
British Dictionary definitions for unadept
adept
adjective (əˈdɛpt)
very proficient in something requiring skill or manual dexterity
skilful; expert
noun (ˈædɛpt)
a person who is skilled or proficient in something
Derived forms of adept
adeptly, adverb adeptness, nounWord Origin for adept
C17: from Medieval Latin
adeptus, from Latin
adipiscī to attain, from
ad- to +
apiscī to attain