adepto

The English cognate points the wrong way, so start with the Esperanto sense. In English, adept is mostly an adjective meaning skilled. In Esperanto the noun leads and the primary meaning is a follower: an adepto is a member or adherent of a doctrine, a school, a sect or a movement. Adepto de Zamenhof, adepto de la nova teorio, adepto de tiu religia grupo. The skilled-initiate sense is there too, and it is the older one, but if you translate adepto as adept in every sentence you will misread half of them.

Another false seam, and the same shape as its neighbour. Ad- is not the Esperanto suffix -ad-, and there is no -ept-. The word came in whole from Latin adeptus, the past participle of adipisci, to attain - ad towards plus apisci to grasp. Medieval alchemy is what carried it into the modern languages: an adeptus was one who had attained the great secret, and from there it slid towards anybody initiated into anything. Compare elokventa one rank earlier and elito five ranks back - three Latin borrowings in one band, all three with a fake Esperanto seam down the front.

How it differs from the words around it. Ano, at rank 468, is the plain word for a member and is entirely neutral - it is also the suffix -an- standing on its own, which is why Esperantisto and klubano are built the way they are. Adepto adds conviction: an ano has joined, an adepto believes. Majstro is the one at the top of the craft, and disĉiplo is the pupil at the feet of a teacher. Adepto sits between the last two.

Tone. It is faintly cool, sometimes sceptical - the word a writer chooses for other people's enthusiasms. Adeptaro is the whole body of followers, and adeptino a female one, though the -in- is rarely needed since the root names a role rather than a man.