E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Adept’
properly means one who has attained (from the Latin, adeptus, participle of adipiscor). The alchemists applied the term vere adep’tus to those persons who professed to have “attained to the knowledge of” the elixir of life or of the philosopher’s stone.
1
Alchemists tell us there are always 11 adepts, neither more nor less. Like the sacred chickens of Compostella, of which there are only 2 and always 2—a cock and a hen.
