sortilege
/ˈsɔːtɪlɪd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Witchcraft, magic, especially as a means of making decisions or predictions.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "We have therefore summoned to our presence a Jewish woman, by name Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York — a woman infamous for sortileges and for witcheries."
- "Orthodox believers […] were less happy about using sortilege to coerce God into taking decisions on their behalf."
- "‘Too much evil sortilege,’ Glad always says when someone suggests he open a franchise over Cheat Ridge."
- "People who faced difficult decisions or needed insight into the future would consult a diviner, who performed a ritual to locate an oracle in the codex and then interpreted the divinatory text. In Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world, this practice - sortilege - was both common and controversial."
Etymology
From Old French sortilège, from Medieval Latin sortilegium (“witchcraft”), from Latin sortilegus (“sorcerer, diviner”), from sors (“fate”) + legere (“choose”).
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: sortilège, sortilegium