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deft

Pronunciation: /dɛft/

The English word “deft” has 1 meaning listed here.

adjective

  1. Quick and neat in action; skillful.

Etymology

From Middle English defte, daft (“gentle”), from Old English dæfte (“mild, gentle, meek”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”), derived from *dabaną (“to be suitable”). Near cognates include Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌳𐍉𐍆𐍃 (gadōfs, “suitable”), West Frisian deftich (“distinguished”), Dutch deftig (“distinguished”), German deftig (“coarse”). Further cognates include Russian добро (dobro, “wealth,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.