sort

Etymology 1

From Middle English sort, soort, sorte (= Dutch soort, German Sorte, Danish sort, Swedish sort), borrowed from Old French sorte (“class, kind”), from Latin sortem, accusative form of sors (“lot, fate, share, rank, category”).

noun

1. A general type.
   I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort 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. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   “[…] the awfully hearty sort 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.[…]” 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
   The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess
   Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. 2013-06-14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37
2. Manner; form of being or acting.
   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 such sort 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. 1845, Richard Hooker, Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine...
   I'll deceive you in another sort ca 1590, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus
   But to Adam in what sort 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? 1667, John Milton, Paradise lost
   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 some sort I may be allow'd to have copied the Clearness, the Purity, the Easiness and the Magnificence of his stile. 1697, John Dryden, The Works of John Dryden, Volume V: Poems
3. (obsolete) Condition above the vulgar; rank.
   "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 great sort, 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." ca 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V
4. (informal) A person evaluated in a certain way (bad, good, strange, etc.).
   There is no problem with this and he seems to be a decent sort with very good reflexes. I will have Felix replaced with him when we get back to Washington because he is more acceptable. October 1999, Heinrich Müller, Müller Journals: 1948-1950, The Washington years
   Amo, he is the prince. And he is a good sort. You, My Husband, should be among his circle 2014, Mykel D. Myles, The Long Night Of The Demon
   One doesn't need to be Einstein to realize he is a bad sort / My wife always said as much. 2014, Seema Jha, Charade978-1-4969-8816-4
5. (dated) Group, company.
   a sort of shepherds suing of the Chace 1595, Edmund Spenser, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser
   a sort of doves were housed too near their hall 1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther
   What good got you by wearing out your feet, To run on scurvy errands to the poor, and to bear mony to a sort of rogues And lousy prisoners? 1622, Philip Massinger, The Virgin Martyr
   A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage, yet admit it thus! 1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer
6. (Britain, informal) A good-looking woman.
7. An act of sorting.
   I had a sort of my cupboard.
8. (computing) An algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.
   Popular algorithms for sorts include quicksort and heapsort.
   The fastest general algorithm we have considered that sorts keys in a stable manner is the list merge sort, but it does not use minimum storage 2014, Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming. Sorting and Searching
9. (typography) A piece of metal type used to print one letter, character, or symbol in a particular size and style.
10. (mathematics) A type.
11. (obsolete) Chance; lot; destiny.
    No, make a lottery; And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector. ca 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
12. (obsolete) A full set of anything, such as a pair of shoes, or a suit of clothes.

Etymology 2

From Middle English sorten, borrowed from Old French sortir (“allot, sort”), from Latin sortire (“draw lots, divide, choose”), from sors.

verb

1. (transitive) To separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts.
   Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.
   And seeing the Rays which differ in Refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another, and that either by Refraction..., or by Reflexion..., and then the several sorts apart at equal Incidences suffer unequal Refractions,...; it's manifest that the Sun's Light is an heterogeneous Mixture of Rays..., as was proposed. 1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks
   "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. 1929, Percival Christopher Wren, Good Gestes, The McSnorrt Reminiscent
   Jaime finally leaves her [Cersei], walking right past his imminent executioner, and rides out of King’s Landing, finally neatly sorting our humans into good and evil and Bronn. August 27, 2017, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club
2. (transitive) To arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.
   Sort those bells into a row in ascending sequence of pitch.
3. (transitive) To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.
   Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insecta. 1635, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie in Ten Centuries
   For when she sorts 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. 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum
4. (transitive, obsolete) To conform; to adapt; to accommodate.
   I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience. ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2
5. (transitive, obsolete) To choose from a number; to select; to cull.
   To send his mother to her father's house, that he may sort her out a worthy spouse 1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer
   I'll sort some other time to visit you. ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 1
6. (intransitive) To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.
   The illiberality of Parents in allowance towards their children is an harmefull error: makes them base; acquaints them with shifts, makes them sort with meane companie; and makes them surfet more, when they come to plenty. 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Parents and Children
   Nor do Metalls only sort 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. 1695, John Woodward, An essay toward a natural history of the earth
7. (intransitive) To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.
   They are happie men, whose natures sort with their vocations, otherwise they may say Multum incola fuit anima mea; when they converse in those things they doe not affect. 1612, Francis Bacon, Of Nature in Men
   I cannot tell ye precisely how they sorted; 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. 1814, Walter Scott, Waverley
8. (Britain, colloquial, transitive) To fix (a problem) or handle (a task).
9. (Britain, colloquial, transitive) To attack physically.
   If he comes nosing around here again I'll sort him!
10. (transitive) To geld.