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Etymology and origin of the Catalan word sort

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1126 a document More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin sors via Old Catalan
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *ser-
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sors
Catalan sort
French sort
Italian sorte
Romanian soartă
Spanish suerte
French sorte
Dutch soort
From the same root
English consort ← sors
Latin cōnsors ← sors
Latin exsors ← sors
Latin sortiārius ← sors
Latin sortior ← sors
Spanish sortero ← suerte

Pronunciation

  • Northern: [ˈso̞rt][1]
  • Balearic, Central, Northwestern: [ˈsɔrt][1]
  • Valencia: [ˈsɔɾt][1]

Forms

sort f (uncountable)[1] The DCVB records /sɔ́ɾt/, with an open vowel;[1] Wiktionary gives a closer [o̞] for Northern Catalan.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan sort, which is inherited from Latin sors (“lot; fate”).[3][2][4][5][1] The same Latin word is Italian sorte, French sort, Occitan sòrt, Spanish suerte, Portuguese sorte and Romanian soartă.[6][1] The sense “kind” is shared with French sorte and Italian sorta.[6]

The Latin noun meant a lot, a lottery ticket or a voting tablet; de Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *sortis (“joining, joint”), from a noun Proto-Indo-European *sr-ti- of the root *ser- (“to bind, join”), the root also of serō (“to link together”).[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines dates the first record to a document of 1126, at the beginnings of the written language.[3][4][5] In Llull the word already means an omen and fortune: in Blanquerna he warns against trusting in youth, omens, sorts and auguries.[3]

Semantic evolution

The medieval language cast lots with gitar, tirar or fer a la sort, as Jaume Roig has it, and the sense “fortune, fate, destiny” has remained in use ever since.[3] Eiximenis in 1381 lists divination per sorts among forbidden arts.[8]

A sense now old was “kind, sort”: a tariff of Perpignan of 1284 already charges duty on drap blanc de sort, a cloth of good quality.[3] From there the word passed to a consignment of goods, recorded from 1430 and in inventories of 1467 and 1489.[3] Faraudo also has it for a share in a division and for a plot of land, as in the ordinances of Binisalem of 1449.[8]

The DIEC2 keeps the senses “fortune, luck”, “kind” and “small plot of land”.[9] Among the derivatives, sorter is in the Costums de Tortosa of 1272, sortejar “to draw lots” is recorded in 1696, dissort about 1830 and dissortat in 1911.[4]

Timeline

  • 1126 – first record, in a document.[3][4]
  • 1272 – the derivative sorter in the Costums de Tortosa.[4]
  • 1284 – drap blanc de sort in a tariff of Perpignan.[3]
  • 1381 – Eiximenis: cireres de diverses sorts “cherries of several kinds”.[8]
  • 1449 – sort de terra, a plot of land, in the ordinances of Binisalem.[8]
  • 1696 – sortejar.[4]
  • 1911 – dissortat.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. fate, fortune: the chain of chance events that decides a person's lot: La sort no li ha estat gens favorable.[9][5][1]
  2. The good or bad outcome that befalls something.[9][5]
  3. chance, the lot by which something is decided: Van triar el porter a la sort.[9][5]
  4. Good luck: Quina sort que has tingut![9][1]
  5. sort de, sort que: luckily, thank goodness for: Sort que portava el paraigua.[9]
  6. A kind, mena.[9][8]
  7. A small plot of land; a piece of woodland lying inside another's estate.[9][2]

Word family

  • dissort
  • dissortat
  • dissortadament
  • sortejar
  • sorteig
  • sortós
  • sortosament

Usage notes

Sort is also a town of the Pallars Sobirà, on the right bank of the Noguera Pallaresa; the DCVB takes its name to be of uncertain, probably pre-Roman origin, recorded as Saorte in 947 and Suort in 981–985.[2] A masculine sort is a name of the blue iris, headed separately in the DIEC2.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. sort
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 8, 97
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 865
  5. ^ a b c d e Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. sort
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8107
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. sors
  8. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. sort
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. sort

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Sort.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ca/sort. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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