Crossword Genius

Daftness of adopting son, or madness? (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

insanity

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'daftness' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'adopting son or madness?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'son' could be 's' (genealogical abbreviation for son) and 's' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'inanity' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for insanity that I've seen before include "mania" , "Mental derangement" , "Lunacy, derangement" , "folly" , "Lunacy, madness" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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