Crossword Genius

Lacking guile and disastrously two down hosting the French (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

artless

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

'lacking guile' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'disastrously two down hosting the french' is the wordplay.
'disastrously two down' becomes 'arts' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hosting' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are welcomed in or hosted).
'the french' becomes 'les' (plural form of 'the' in French).
'arts' placed around 'les' is 'ARTLESS'.

'and' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for artless that I've seen before include "Free from cunning" , "Simple and natural in manner" , "Simple, unaffected" , "Ingenuous" , "Without pretension" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app