SORS
Sors, n.; pl. Sortes. Etym: [L.]
Defn: A lot; also, a kind of divination by means of lots. Sortes Homericæ or Virgilianæ Etym: [L., Homeric or Virgilian lots], a form of divination anciently practiced, which consisted in taking the first passage on which the eye fell, upon opening a volume of Homer or Virgil, or a passage drawn from an urn which several were deposited, as indicating future events, or the proper course to be pursued. In later times the Bible was used for the same purpose by Christians.
SORT
Sort, n. Etym: [F. sorl, L. sors, sortis. See Sort kind.]
Defn: Chance; lot; destiny. [Obs.]
By aventure, or sort, or cas [chance]. Chaucer.
Let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector. Shak.
SORT
Sort, n. Etym: [F. sorie (cf. It. sorta, sorte), from L. sors, sorti,
a lot, part, probably akin to serere to connect. See Series, and cf.
Assort, Consort, Resort, Sorcery, Sort lot.]
1. A kind or species; any number or collection of individual persons or things characterized by the same or like qualities; a class or order; as, a sort of men; a sort of horses; a sort of trees; a sort of poems.
2. Manner; form of being or acting. Which for my part I covet to perform, In sort as through the world I did proclaim. Spenser. Flowers, in such sort worn, can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them. Hooker. I'll deceive you in another sort. Shak. To Adam in what sort Shall I appear Milton. I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I have copied his style. Dryden.
3. Condition above the vulgar; rank. [Obs.] Shak.
4. A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. [Obs.] "A sort of shepherds." Spenser. "A sort of steers." Spenser. "A sort of doves." Dryden. "A sort of rogues." Massinger. A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage. Chapman.
5. A pair; a set; a suit. Johnson.