I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into asort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
“[…] the awfully heartysort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer.[…]”
The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of asort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.
Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the othersort of swearing: vows and oaths.
Soon as the term of those six years shall cease, Ye then shall hither back return again, The marriage to accomplish vow’d betwixt you twain. Which for my part, I covet to perform, Insort as through the world I did proclaim, That whoso kill’d that monster (most deform) And him in hardy battle overcame, Should have mine only daughter to his Dame[…]
1845, Richard Hooker,Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine[…][2]:
Such is that argument whereby they that wore on their heads garlands are charged as transgressors of nature’s law, and guilty of sacrilege against God the Lord of nature, inasmuch as flowers, in suchsort worn can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them; and God made flowers sweet and beautiful, that being seen and smelt unto, they might so delight.
But to Adam in whatsort Shall I appeer? shall I to him make known As yet my change, and give him to partake Full happiness with mee, or rather not, But keep the odds of Knowledge within my power Without copartner?
1697, John Dryden,The Works of John Dryden, Volume V: Poems[4],→ISBN:
I acknowledge, with Segrais, that I have not succeeded in this attempt, according to my desire: yet I shall not be wholly without praise, if in somesort I may be allow’d to have copied the Clearness, the Purity, the Easiness and the Magnificence of his stile.
Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of suchsort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
With the might of that throw Goldry’s wrath departed from him and left him strengthless, in suchsort that he reeled as he went from the wrastling ground.
“What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath?” “He is a craven and a villain else, an’t please your majesty, in my conscience.” “It may be his enemy is a gentleman of greatsort, quite from the answer of his degree.” “Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath.”
1999 October, Heinrich Müller,Müller Journals: 1948-1950, The Washington years[6]:
There is no problem with this and he seems to be a decentsort with very good reflexes. I will have Felix replaced with him when we get back to Washington because he is more acceptable.
2014, Mykel D. Myles,The Long Night Of The Demon,→ISBN:
Amo, he is the prince. And he is a goodsort. You, My Husband, should be among his circle
2014, Seema Jha,Charade978-1-4969-8816-4:
One doesn't need to be Einstein to realize he is a badsort / My wife always said as much.
French:triage(fr)m,tri(fr)m(but the phrase "to have a sort of"is more idiomatically translated by the verb "trier",to sort, or "ranger",to sort, to tidy)
Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.
1704, Isaac Newton,Opticks:
And seeing the Rays which differ in Refrangibility may be parted andsorted from one another, and that either by Refraction..., or by Reflexion..., and then the severalsorts apart at equal Incidences suffer unequal Refractions,...; it's manifest that the Sun's Light is an heterogeneous Mixture of Rays..., as was proposed.
1929, Percival Christopher Wren,Good Gestes, The McSnorrt Reminiscent:
"Is there a man among ye has the Gaelic? ... Is there a man among ye can speak English even? ... Is there a man among ye at all? Ye gang o' lasceevious auld de'ils, decked oot like weemin, in spite o' yer hairy long whuskers, full beards and full skirts, ye deceitful besoms. Whuskers and petticoats wi' the vices o' both and the virtues o' neither. I'll sorrt ye." And there were sounds of alarums and excursions within.
2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, inThe Onion AV Club[12]:
Jaime finally leaves her [Cersei], walking right past his imminent executioner, and rides out of King’s Landing, finally neatlysorting our humans into good and evil and Bronn.
For when shesorts things present with things past And thereby things to come doth oft foresee; When she doth doubt at first, and chuse at last, These acts her owne, without her body bee.
To send his mother to her father's house, that he maysort her out a worthy spouse
ca 1591, William Shakespeare,Henry VI part 1:
I'llsort some other time to visit you.
(intransitive) To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.
1625, Francis Bacon,Of Parents and Children:
The illiberality of Parents in allowance towards their children is an harmefull error: makes them base; acquaints them with shifts, makes themsort with meane companie; and makes them surfet more, when they come to plenty.
1695,John Woodward,An essay toward a natural history of the earth:
Nor do Metalls onlysort and herd with Metalls in the Earth : and Minerals with Minerals : but both indifferently and in common together: Iron with Vitriol, with Alum, with Sulphur: Copper with Sulphur, with Vitriol, &c. yea Iron, Copper, Lead, Nitre, Sulphur, Vitriol, and perhaps some more in one and the same Mass.
They are happie men, whose naturessort with their vocations, otherwise they may sayMultum incola fuit anima mea; when they converse in those things they doe not affect.
1814, Walter Scott,Waverley:
I cannot tell ye precisely how theysorted; but they agreed sae right that Donald was invited to dance at the wedding in his Highland trews, and they said that there was never sae meikle siller clinked in his purse either before or since.
2024 February 25, Donna Ferguson, “‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming”, inThe Observer[16]:
‘Does rewildingsort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming [title]
In British sense “to fix a problem”, often used in constructions like “I’ll get you sorted” or “Now that’s sorted” – in American and Australian usagesort out is used instead.
1 When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. 2 The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.
fate,destiny(consequences or effects predetermined by past events or a divine will)
Je suis tombé amoureux de lui depuis le premier jour où je l’ai vu. C’était lesort. ―I fell in love with him since the first day I laid eyes on him. It wasdestiny.
lot(something used in determining a question by chance)
Abstract nouns(a noun denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object) in French [and other Romance languages] use definite articles prior to the noun—unlike English. I.e. C'étaitlesort qui nous a réunis = It wasfate that brought us together.
"A/<count> kind(s) of X" is expressed as "en/<count> sort(er)s X," and "what kind(s) of X" as "vad för sorts X."
Though traditionally considered incorrect, many native speakers will intuitively let the noun aftersorts determine the gender rather thansort, for example saying "ett sortshus" rather than "en sorts hus". Seethis question to Språket on Sveriges Radio.
