sorc-, sors-, sort-

To keep company or to associate with others: Susan likes to consort with her friends when they meet every Saturday for coffee and cake in the afternoon. © ALL rights are reserved.

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An association or grouping of institutions, businesses, or financial organizations, usually set up for a common purpose that would be beyond the capabilities of a single member of the group.

A consortium can be exemplified as an association or a combination, as of businesses, financial institutions, or investors, for the purpose of engaging in a joint venture.

A cooperative arrangement among groups or institutions is also a consortium.

To enchant or to bewitch someone: The entertainer ensorcelled his audience with his extraordinary magical presentations and personality. © ALL rights are reserved.
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1. One's fortune in life; fate; chance; fortune: A lot can happen without preparing for it and without forethought, like a person's destiny.
2. An object used to make a determination or choice at random:A lot can be a dice, pebble, a slip of paper, or a coin to answer a question by chance and without a person's choic, like "casting lots."

A lot is also the use of objects in making a determination or choice at random, like "chosen by lot."

Something that befalls one because of, or as if because, of determination is a lot.
3. Etymology: from Old English hlot, "object (anything from dice to straw, but often a chip of wood with a name inscribed on it) used to determine someone's share"; also, "what falls to a person by lot".

An object was placed with others in a receptacle, which was shaken, the winner being the one that fell out first, hence to cast lots. In some cases the lots were drawn by hand.

The sense of "plot of land" is first recorded in 1633 (distribution of the best property in new settlements often determined by casting lot), that of "group, collection" is 1725, from the notion of auction lots.

The generalized sense of "many" is first attested in 1812. To cast (one's) lot with another is to agree to share the winnings of something.

1. Someone who is believed to have magical powers or who claims to have magical powers: In the past, sorcerers were considered either evil, and were often put to death, or they were revered by nobility, because the high ranking royals believed that the sorcerers could ward off evil through spells.

The people in the village thought the old man who lived alone in the forest was a sorcerer and that he was able to conjure up evil spirits to torment them if they mistreated him. So they treated him with respect.

2. Etymology: from the Latin sortiarius, usually someone who "casts lots" which are used to determine the fate or destiny of certain people. © ALL rights are reserved.

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Usually a woman who practices witchcraft: The common image of a sorceress is of an old woman with a crooked hat, a long nose, a broom, and a black cat, and who can use magical powers that are believed to be obtained through evil spirits. © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. To transform or to change by means of magical powers: The children wanted to learn how to sorcerize, and so they bought a box of different items and objects to practice casting spells and producing special and unbelievable effects.
2. Etymology: from Old French sortir, "allot, sort, assort", from Latin sortiri, "draw lots, divide, choose", from sors which is a shortened form of "assort".

Of the nature of, or descriptive of magical powers: Sorcerous elements include enchantment, witchcraft; the use of supposed supernatural powers by the agency of evil spirits called forth by spells, incantations, etc., on the part of the magician or witch.

1. The use of supernatural powers with the assistance of evil spirits usually in order to harm other people: When Mark found out that his wife was having an affair with another man, he paid a woman, who was a specialist in sorcery, to make his wife's new boyfriend fall in love with another woman and not have anything to do with his married partner anymore.
2. Etymology: from Old French sorcerie, from sorcier, "sorcerer", from Vulgar Latin sortiarius; literally, "someone who influences fate or fortune", from Latin sors, "lot, fate, fortune".

Sort (noun) from Old French sorte "class, kind", from Latin sortem, "lot, fate, share, portion, rank, category". The sense that evolved in Vulgar Latin is from "what is allotted to one by fate," to "fortune, condition", to "rank, class, order".

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1. The practice of magic with supernatural powers: With the wave of her magical wand, the Fairy Godmother, skilled in sortilege, changed the poor little scullery maid into a beautiful princess.
2. Etymology: from Latin sortilegus, “prophetic, soothsayer”; from sors, “lot, fortune” plus legere, “to read”. © ALL rights are reserved.

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