Etymology Explorer › Middle English

Where does “sort” come from?

sort (Middle English) comes from Old French sorte, from Italian sorta, from Latin sors, from Latin legere, from Latin legō, from Latin lēx, from Proto-Italic lēg-, from Proto-Indo-European leǵ-s — to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to...

Ancestry of “sort”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchsortesort; type
2Italiansortasort, type, kind; feminine singular past...
3Latinsorsanything used to determine chances, lot; a...
4Latinlegeresecond-person singular future passive indicative...
5Latinlegō—
6Latinlēx—
7Proto-Italiclēg-—
8Proto-Indo-Europeanleǵ-s—
9Proto-Indo-Europeanleǵ-to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to...

Words derived from “sort”

  • sort
  • sorting
  • sorter
  • sortal
  • quicksort
  • sortable
  • heapsort
  • mergesort
  • presort
  • sortation
  • sortase
  • sorteth
  • Shellsort
  • woolsorter
  • besort
  • unsortable
  • sortance
  • sortability
  • nonsortal
  • missort
  • immunosorting
  • sortably
  • immunosort
  • smoothsort
Every word from Proto-Indo-European leǵ- →