sors

Sors is a Latin noun (nominative sors; genitive sortis; feminine) meaning a lot, portion, share, fate, or destiny. The term originally referred to a portion allocated by drawing of lots and to the outcome of such a process. In Roman contexts, sors could denote the fate assigned to individuals or the share of a communal division.

In classical and medieval usage, the plural form sortes came to denote fate generally and also served as a technical term for divinatory practices that used texts or objects as oracles. One well-known practice is Sortes Virgilianae, the Virgilian sortes, where readers sought guidance by selecting lines from the poet Virgil. The root sors is the linguistic ancestor of the English word sort and of related terms that pass through Old French, such as sort, sortilege, and assortment, all echoing the notion of division, selection, or fate.

Today, sors is largely encountered in historical, literary, or philological contexts and is uncommon in everyday English. The word survives in Latin phrases and scholarly discussions of ancient and medieval practices related to drawing lots or interpreting fate. Sors can also appear as a proper name in some cultures, though such use generally has no intrinsic connection to the Latin meaning.