sorcerer

Etymology

It is formed from English sorcer + -er,^[2][3][4][5] an extended form of the older noun sorcer (“a sorcerer”),^[6][7][8] with the same superfluous ending as poulterer, upholsterer and caterer.^[6][9] The older noun is from Old French sorcier,^[6][3][9][7] recorded in Anglo-Norman from about 1185,^[10] from Vulgar Latin *sortiārius (“caster of lots”),^{[11][9][12][13]} also given as *sortārius by Ayto^[8] and as Medieval Latin sortārius (“teller of fortunes by lot; sorcerer”) by Etymonline,^[6] which also produced Spanish sortero and Italian sortiere.^[6] The base is Latin sors (“lot, fate, fortune”),^{[11][3][9][8][14]} the source of sort,^[8][14] and Klein connects the form with sortior (“to cast lots”).^[9] Dictionary.com marks the Vulgar Latin step as only "perhaps",^[15] and Etymonline adds that sorcerer may be a back-formation from sorcery, recorded about 1300, or influenced by it.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A conjurer of spirits or diviner: sorcer appears about 1400 among the "wychez and walkyries" of Cleanness,^[7] and Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[6] The longer form sorcerer follows in the early 15th century according to Etymonline,^[6] the 15th century according to Merriam-Webster,^[12] though the OED's first quotation is Tyndale's Bible of 1526.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymologically a sorcerer draws lots: Latin sortes, the plural, was used of the responses given by oracles, so that the Vulgar Latin noun passed from "priest of the oracle" to "caster of spells".^[8][14] In English the word has always carried some suggestion of evil.^[6] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a conjurer, an enchanter or a magician.^[16] The figurative sorcerer's apprentice, someone who sets off a process and then cannot control it, translates l'apprenti sorcier, the title of a symphonic poem by Paul Dukas (1897), itself based on Goethe's ballad Der Zauberlehrling (1797);^[6][14][2] it became common in English only after Disney's Fantasia of 1940, and the OED's first quotation is from 1952.^[6][2]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – sorcer, a sorcerer, in Cleanness.^[7]
• early 15th century – sorcerer, a conjurer of spirits, one who uses magic in divination.^[6] The OED's first quotation, for one who practises sorcery, is from Tyndale's Bible (1526).^[2]
• 1952 – sorcerer's apprentice, in the figurative sense.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who practises or claims to practise magic; a wizard: The sorcerer in the tale turned the king's horses to stone.^[13][12][2]
2. sorcerer's apprentice: a person who starts a process and then cannot control it without help.^[14][6][2]

Related words

• ensorcell
• sorceress
• sorcery
• sort

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.