sors

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈsɔrs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsɔrs]^[1]

Forms

sors f (genitive sortis); third declension^[1] Plautus has a nominative sortis, and an ablative sortī is common.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *sorti- (“joining, joint”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sr̥-ti- (“joining”), from the root *ser- (“to bind, line up”), as in serō “to join together” and series.^[3][1][4] The OLD calls the origin doubtful, perhaps from serō.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[3] whose Casina has a drawing of lots in which someone is warned to check “that there is no other lot under the water”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was a lot, a tablet or token cast into an urn, and the drawing of lots, so that sorte meant “by lot”.^[2][5] Oracles were often given on lots, and it came to mean an oracular reply, as in Ennius.^[2] What fell to one by lot was a share or portion, and it was a unit of land in one system of measurement.^[2]

In money-lending it was the capital, as against the interest, as in Plautus and Terence.^[2] It meant one's lot in life, fate or destiny, as in Virgil's “the mind of men, ignorant of fate and of future lot”, and a kind or class of things.^[2] Medieval Latin used it for a share of an inheritance divided by lot, and so for an estate or holding.^[6][1] It survives as Italian sorte, French sort, Spanish suerte and Romanian soartă.^[1] English sort came from Old French in the late 14th century, and sorcery from a Latin derivative.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for lots and for capital.^[2][8]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it for an oracle.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero describes lots cast into an urn.^[5][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for fate.^[2][8]
• c. 1300 – English sorcery is first recorded.^[7]
• late 14th century – English sort is first recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lot (used in drawing lots).^[2][4]
2. The drawing of lots, sorte by lot.^[2]
3. An oracular reply.^[2][1]
4. A share, portion; an allotment.^[2][1]
5. (finance) Capital, principal.^[2][1]
6. One's lot, fate, destiny.^[2][1]
7. A kind, class.^[2][1]
8. (Medieval Latin) A share of an inheritance; an estate, holding.^[6][1]

Word family

• cōnsors
• dissors
• exsors
• sortiārius
• sortifex
• sortior

Related words

• serō
• English sort
• English sorcery
• English consort

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de