{"id":4448,"date":"2026-05-09T15:16:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=4448"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:18:33","slug":"adventures-in-etymology-rightly-adriot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=4448","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Etymology &#8211; Rightly Adriot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; Rightly Adriot\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2026-05-09T15:16:35+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT2M03S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"In this Adventure in Etymology we deftly discover the right roots of the word adroit.\n\n\n\nAdroit [\u0259\u02c8d\u0279\u0254\u026at] means deft, dexterous or skillful. Related words include adriotness (skillfulness or ease of ability), and maladriot (awkward, clumsy, inept).\n\n...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"2.1\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_2755\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4448-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=4448-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"rightlyadroit.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>In this Adventure in Etymology we deftly discover the right roots of the word <strong>adroit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/didier_schrch\/52333341865\/in\/photolist-2nJw4gF-7hS1tQ-2mZW8mt-2nf86cm-2na7ixx-2kcQJTR-ey41Te-2kDFphi-2nvnRzA-dJQN3d-8Aa3Xb-4DiX3r-2ouEaoW-2iBuF4S-7CA1B1-2jGpkUy-4DodcA-qptYTm-2pvPRjg-7hS1zy-2ouE5dW-2n5WtgY-7hN4Pr-7hRZYG-DoSuCm-6pLkPG-ZShuQb-7hS12u-9pSqh9-2ewtx5p-2iBs24u-QLbKA6-2iBuF65-23V3pJz-2ewtwWP-2d8GHR8-2ewtwEM-2rCVB1A-ThfERt-2r39PvB-2nzzsRm-8JSi3P-eP8z2x-2iikyRt-24pPteG-79Cx2t-2gHEmXG-2gNNA69-XL2qE9-26ygDJW\" title=\"Marmotte (Marmota marmota) (56)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52333341865_a770313328_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Marmotte (Marmota marmota) (56)\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Adroit<\/strong> [\u0259\u02c8d\u0279\u0254\u026at] means deft, dexterous or skillful. Related words include <strong>adriotness<\/strong> (skillfulness or ease of ability), and <strong>maladriot<\/strong> (awkward, clumsy, inept).<\/p>\n<p>It comes from French <strong>adroit<\/strong> (skilful, apt, skilled), from <strong>\u00e0<\/strong> (to) and <strong>droit<\/strong> (right, law, right angle), so could be translated as &#8216;to the right&#8217;, and the French phrase <strong>\u00e0 droite<\/strong> means on the right or to the right [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/adroit#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>A related word in French is <strong>adret<\/strong>, which refers to the sun-facing side of a mountain, particularly in the Alps [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/adret#French\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The somewhat dated German word <strong>adrett<\/strong> (neat, tidy, clean-cut) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/adrett#German\">source<\/a>] was borrowed from French, and was also borrowed into Danish (via German) to become <strong>adr\u00e6t<\/strong> (agile, nimble) and <strong>adr\u00e6thed<\/strong> (agility) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/adr%C3%A6t#Danish\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The French word <strong>droit<\/strong> (right, etc) comes from Old French, <em>droit<\/em> [\u02c8d\u027eoi\u032ft] (justice, right), from Late Latin <em>drictus<\/em> (straight, right), from Latin <em>d\u012br\u0113ctus<\/em> (laid straight, direct, straight), from <em>d\u012brig\u014d<\/em> (to lay straight, guide, distribute) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/droit#French\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>dirigere<\/strong> (to address, run, manage, direct) in Italian, <strong>derecho<\/strong> (straight, right, correct) in Spanish, <strong>dyrygowa\u0107<\/strong> (to conduct, boss around) in Polish, and <strong>address<\/strong> and <strong>direct<\/strong> in English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/dirigo#Latin\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/uk\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_flow&amp;SESSION=aLjPfXL-vP_1gQ_U23Iz8_hSWLlhzLHPMFZrt32dIEfG8htoNFLYaPoWkv8&amp;dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8def8934b92a630e40b7fef61ab7e9fe63\">PayPal<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/omniglot\">Patreon<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/donations.htm\">contribute to Omniglot in other ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Radio Omniglot podcasts are brought to you in association with <a href=\"https:\/\/blubrry.com\/services\/podcast-hosting\/?code=omniglot\">Blubrry Podcast Hosting<\/a>, a great place to host your podcasts. Get your first month free with the promo code <strong>omniglot<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/\">Omniglot Blog<\/a>, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/\">Celtiadur<\/a> blog.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n   crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n   style=\"display:block\"\n   data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n   data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n   data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n   data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n   (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; Rightly Adriot\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2026-05-09T15:16:35+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT2M03S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"In this Adventure in Etymology we deftly discover the right roots of the word adroit.\n\n\n\nAdroit [\u0259\u02c8d\u0279\u0254\u026at] means deft, dexterous or skillful. Related words include adriotness (skillfulness or ease of ability), and maladriot (awkward, clumsy, inept).\n\n...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"2.1\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_2756\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-4448-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=4448-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/rightlyadroit.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"rightlyadroit.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>In this Adventure in Etymology we deftly discover the right roots of the word adroit. Adroit [\u0259\u02c8d\u0279\u0254\u026at] means deft, dexterous or skillful. Related words include adriotness (skillfulness or ease of ability), and maladriot (awkward, clumsy, inept). It comes from French adroit (skilful, apt, skilled), from \u00e0 (to) and droit (right, law, right angle), so could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,31,20,56,23,24,4,50,58,109,1],"tags":[426,427,424,425,90,9,167,88,8,103],"class_list":["post-4448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-etymology","category-danish","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-german","category-language","category-latin","category-middle-english","category-old-french-franceis","category-podcast","tag-adret","tag-adrett","tag-adroit","tag-droit","tag-etymology","tag-language","tag-linguistics","tag-omniglot","tag-podcast","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4449,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448\/revisions\/4449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}