Etymologically
Log in

sors

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:16. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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