sortero

Forms

sortero m (feminine sortera)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish suerte + -ero: the DCECH lists the word and the variant suertero among the derivatives of suerte “lot, fortune”.^[2] The DLE derives it from Latin sors “lot; oracle” with the suffix -ero.^[1] The REW gives it among the derivatives of the Latin word, beside French sorcier “sorcerer”.^[3] Old Galician-Portuguese had sorteira “a woman who casts lots”, perhaps “witch”, in the Cantigas, and the Portuguese word sorteiro “diviner” is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][4]

The Latin word meant “lot, lottery ticket”; de Vaan reconstructs *sorti- “joining, joint”, from Proto-Indo-European *sr̥-ti-, and relates it to serō (“to link together”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first record is the feminine sortera in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (1200–1250).^[6] The Libro de Alexandre says of a woman „ca era grant devina e era sortera” “for she was a great diviner and a soothsayer”, and the Fuero Real forbids anyone to be „adevino ni sortero”.^[7] A work of Alfonso X of about 1254 uses it in the same sense, “augur, soothsayer”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Juan Manuel pairs los agoreros et los sorteros with diviners, and the DCECH dates the word to his Conde Lucanor.^[7][2] A 1566 report from Yucatán speaks of „indios sorteros, adivinos y hechiceros”.^[9] Autoridades defined it simply as a synonym of adivino.^[10] The Academy marked it as old from 1869.^[11] The DLE now adds a second sense, each of the persons among whom something is shared out by lot.^[1] Regional dictionaries record sortero “lucky” in Mexico and, in Jaén, a man who takes a plot of land for some years to plant vines.^[12][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A soothsayer, augur or diviner.^[1][14]
2. Each of the persons among whom something is distributed by sorteo.^[1][15]

Related words

• sortear
• sortilegio
• adivino
• agorero

References

1. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sortero
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 330
3. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8107
4. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3150
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sortero
7. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. s.v. sortero
8. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. sortero
9. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sortero
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. sortero
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 723
12. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 985
13. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 585
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 991
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sortero