exsors

Forms

exsors (genitive exsortis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1] It is also spelled exors, which the manuscripts very often have.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + sors (“lot”), “without a lot”.^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces sors to Proto-Italic *sorti- and Proto-Indo-European *sr̥-ti- (“joining, joint”).^[5] Isidore explained it in the same way, as “outside the lot”.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Virgil,^[7] who uses it of an honour not decided by lot, and of a horse given to Aeneas as a special choice: ducunt exsortem Aeneae.^[2][4][8]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is assigned specially, not by lot, and of persons exempt from a lottery.^[2] Valerius Flaccus uses it of choice portions of the victims taken out beforehand.^[8] From not taking part in a drawing it came to mean having no share in, deprived of or exempt from something, usually with a genitive: Virgil's dead infants are dulcis vitae exsortes, and Livy, Horace and Tacitus have it of those excluded from an alliance, from a role or from danger.^[2][8][9] Jerome uses it in the sense outstanding, exceptional, and Sidonius with a dative.^[9] Medieval British writers keep the sense having no share in, as Bede of those cut off from grace, Alcuin of a body without breath, and later authors of those without the Christian faith or free from sin.^[10] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means deprived of, without.^[11]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a choice not decided by lot and of those deprived of life.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of those excluded from an alliance.^[9][7]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it in the sense exceptional.^[9][7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains it as “outside the lot”.^[6][3][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Assigned specially and not by lot, choice; of persons, exempt from a lottery.^[2][4]
2. Having no share in, deprived of, exempt from (with genitive).^[2][4][8]
3. (Late Latin) Outstanding, exceptional.^[9]

Related words

• sors
• cōnsors

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson