maladroit | Word of the Day

January 23, 2018 maladroit [mal-uh-droit] adjective 1. unskillful; awkward; bungling; tactless; lacking in adroitness: to handle a diplomatic crisis in a very maladroit way. word facts Words With Good And Bad Histories quiz A Heartsome Word of the Day Quiz WORD OF THE DAY maladroit continued... QUOTES He asked a thousand pardons of Madame la Duchesse for being so maladroit. -- William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, 1855 ORIGIN English maladroit is a direct borrowing from French. The first element, mal-, is from the French adverb and combining form mal- "badly, ill," from the Latin adverb male with the same meaning. The second element is the French adjective adroit "skillful, deft," in origin a prepositional phrase à droit (also à dreit) "by or according to right; correctly." The element à is from Latin ad "to, up to, towards." Dreit (droit) is the French development of Vulgar Latin drēctum, drictum "straightened, straight," from Latin dīrectum, dērectum "straight, right." Maladroit entered English in the 17th century. MORE FROM THE WEB OTHERS ARE READING 1 The Longest English Words Challenge yourself to pronounce these looooooooooong words 2 Ghost Words Haunting The Dictionary Join us as we walk through these linguistic anomalies 3 Burpees And Other Exercises Explained Exercises with curious word origins and will inspire a workout 4 2017 in Words From fury to unprecedented, these words defined our year. 5 Words That Millennials Are Allergic To Millennial allergies and the language affected © 2017 Dictionary.com, LLC. ABOUT CONTACT You are subscribed to the Word of the Day as: matzom229@gmail.com Subscriber since: September 06, 2017 Unsubscribe Dictionary.com, LLC. 555 12th Street Suite 500 Oakland CA 94607 Manage your subscription Terms & Privacy