sortilege

[ sawr-tl-ij ]

noun

1. the drawing of lots for divination; divination by lot.
2. sorcery; magic.

sortilege

/ ˈsɔːtɪlɪdʒ /

noun

1. the act or practice of divination by drawing lots
2. magic or sorcery

Other Words From

• sor·ti·leg·ic [sawr-tl-, ej, -ik], sor·ti·le·gious [sawr-tl-, ee, -j, uh, s], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of sortilege¹

1350–1400; Middle English < Medieval Latin sortilegium, for Latin sortilegus, equivalent to sort- (stem of sors ) lot, chance + -i- -i- + -legus (derivative of legere to read, count, choose out); -ium

Word History and Origins

Origin of sortilege¹

C14: via Old French from Medieval Latin sortilegium, from Latin sortilegus a soothsayer, from sors fate + legere to select

Example Sentences

He chose her to play Sortilège, the movie’s narrator and the novel’s casually insightful mystic, because, he said, a narrator knows more than the characters.

From New York Times

Snowshoeing is a workout, but you’ll be rewarded with a stop in a rustic cabin for hot fondue spiked with Sortilège, a whiskey with maple syrup that adds a subtle sweetness.

From Forbes

Sortilège tells the story of Doc and Shasta from an unseen, undated, unspecified vantage point, even as, on a few occasions, she turns up within the story.

From The New Yorker

He gives Pynchon’s unnamed narrator an identity, taking a minor character, a woman named Sortilège, from a few scenes in the book, and making her the first person seen onscreen.

From The New Yorker

But it surely counts that the lone voice of wisdom belongs not to Doc, but to his friend and the film’s narrator, Sortilège, played by the cotton-voiced Joanna Newsom.

From Washington Post