Dictionary formsors, sortis(feminine)

Line drawing of sors
Coloured illustration of sors
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Translation

lot, drawing of lots; fate, destiny; share, portion

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Grammar

Genderfeminine

Cases

Casesingularplural
Nominativethe subjectsorssortes
Vocativecalling someone: O ...sorssortes
Accusativethe direct object; after ad, in (into), persortemsortes
Genitiveofsortissortium
Dativeto, forsortisortibus
Ablativeby, with, from; after a, ab, cum, de, e, ex, in (in), sinesortesortibus

Examples

.

My lot is a hard one.

.

He ought to bear his own fate bravely.

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The provinces were assigned to the commanders by lot.

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The king asked about the fate of the soldiers.

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They cast lots before the battle.

Sors, sortis is third declension feminine, an i-stem, so the genitive plural is sortium. Start from the concrete sense and the rest falls out: a sors is the physical token, wood or bronze, drawn from a jar. Rome allotted provinces, juries and priesthoods that way, which is why sorte on its own means "by lot" and sortiri is "to draw for something".

From the token you get the share it wins you, and from the share you get the whole life it represents, so sors ends up meaning destiny. That last sense is the poets' and it overlaps fatum and fortuna without being either: fatum is what has been spoken over you, fortuna is chance, sors is the portion you drew. French sort, Spanish suerte and English sort, assort, consort and sorcery all come down from it.

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sors: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "sors" (lot, drawing of lots; fate, destiny; share, portion): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is taught in chapter 7, lesson 11: sors, aliquot, comes and 4 more words.