Adieu is not a good starter word, IMO. Consonants and more specifically consonant pairings and word roots are way more important.
You want your starter word to have 3 consonants and 2 vowels. If you blank the vowels, well you still have pretty much the same information you'd have had with Adieu. But now you are starting with more infor on the rest of the letters.
You want your consonants to start with the most common letters. The letters in first two words (it I need them) are R, S, T, N, L, D. If other letter dictate, P, C, G, M are common alternatives. I start with TR for the added benefit of narrowing the first letter if the R hits as there are only so many -R combos. I try to use S at the end of my second word if possible (I play hard mode). S is a common ending (so is E).
Usually absent double letters or uncommon letters, I can get it in 3 or 4 and more 3's than 5's.