[ad. L. sortītio, f. sortīri to cast or draw lots.]
1. The casting or drawing of lots; selection, choice or determination by lot.
1597. J. King, On Jonas (1618), 120. For so doth Tully define Sortition, that it is nothing else but hap-hazard. Ibid. (1608), Serm., 24 March, 11. Some reigne by vsurpation,… some by acquisition,… some by sortition or augurie.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. xvi. 5. The old way of sortition was by staves or rods.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 74. No mode of election operating in the spirit of sortition or rotation.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. xliv. V. 371. The principle of sortition or choice by lot was never applied … to all offices at Athens.
1886. Q. Rev., July, 12. Aristotle tells us that in a certain Arcadian state sortition superseded election.
2. With a and pl. An act or instance of determining by lot.
1634. Bp. Hall, Contempl., N. T., IV. 273. The souldiers have … cast lots upon thy seamlesse coat (those poore spoiles cannot so much inrich them, as glorifie thee; whose Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions).
1634. in 4th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., 127. Whether the advowsons of benefices … be not passed by balls or sortitions to private residentiaryes.
1830. W. Taylor, Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry, I. 275. The scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the sortition of the garments.
1887. Miss Betham-Edwards, Next of Kin Wanted, I. xiv. 190. The transfer of the property, by a distribution, sortition, or otherwise.
† 3. An allotted share or portion. Obs.
1671. [R. MacWard], True Non-conf., 90. The Lords People…, whether … termed … lots, in order to their respective Pastors, whose sortitions, and divisions they are, or as being Gods heritage.
