Adept comes from adeptus , a Latin term. It is an adjective that can refer to someone who defends a certain cause or supports a leader or an institution. For example: "The German writer, adept at romanticism, passed away on a day like today two hundred years ago" , "The truth is that I am not adept at European cinema, I prefer American films" , "My grandson is adept at new technologies" .
Whoever is adept at something, therefore, supports it in different ways or participates in its proposal. A man who is adept at a religious movement, in this way, will respect its precepts and comply with what the authorities ask of him. The woman adept at pastry will try to perfect the gastronomic preparations of this type that she usually makes, studying new techniques and trying recipes.
In a broad sense, you can be adept at endless things. That person who enjoys listening to and dancing tango is adept at this musical genre. The filmmaker who works with millionaire budgets can be said to be adept at large productions. The communicator who enjoys analyzing electoral processes and interviewing government officials and opposition leaders is adept at political journalism.
Those who are attached to clandestine organizations or sects are also called adherents. The followers of David Koresh, the leader of the Davidian sect, participated in a confrontation with US security forces in 1993 that resulted in a collective suicide. These followers of Koresh can be classified as adepts since the group lived outside the law, committing different crimes in a closed community.
It happens many times that a group draws our attention for some of their ideas and that we begin to follow their trail, but over time we realize that we do not have so many things in common; It may even happen that we find a very disappointing and regrettable difference, such as the contrast between animalism and bullfighting, for example. At that moment, we made the inevitable decision not to follow these people anymore, since the affinity was only partial.
The opposite case can also happen: that the subjects of whom we call ourselves adherents are not happy with our way of interpreting their principles, and therefore they consider us an obstacle to carry out their activities. In short, for the qualification with this adjective to be fully valid, it is necessary that both parties agree.
To better understand the concept of adept, it is very useful to take a look at two of its antonyms: enemy and adversary . These are two terms with very similar meanings, especially in terms of the position they denote with respect to the ideas of a third party: a person's enemies are on the other side, they confront him, they wish him evil and in many cases cases hurt her or even try to get rid of her. Her opponents are also against her, they are very different from her and may have the same attitudes as the previous ones.