† sortmentn.
Obsolete.
1. The action or process of sorting, separating, or arranging; sortation, classification.
ΚΠ
1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres iii. 69 The due sortement and matching of these weapons to offend, and defend.
1622 F. Markham Five Decades Epist. of Warre v. iii. 170 The iust number of the Army, together with the true sortment and division of euery weapon.
1755 in S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang.
1778 W. Pryce Mineralogia Cornubiensis 233 When it comes to grass they make a sortment of the larger stones from the smaller.
2.
a. A collection of assorted goods or articles; a sorted set or lot; an assortment.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being gathered together > an assemblage or collection > [noun] > assorted
sortment1621
assortment1791
1621 in W. Foster Eng. Factories India 1618–21 (1906) 326 To write the bymarke of the sortement of every chest.
1657 J. Johnson Let. 22 Feb. in Coll. State Papers J. Thurloe (1742) VI. 56 In March we expected most of our chiefe merchants to come out for their easter sortment, against which tyme I desired you would be pleased to give orders at Freshford.
1719 W. Wood Surv. Trade (ed. 2) 246 Manufacturing and making up proper Sortments of Goods.
1766 T. Brooks Authentick Acct. Coins E. Indies 67 The finest Hysons, and all other Sortments of the Green-Teas.
b. transferred. A set or number of persons.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > arrangement or fact of being arranged > state of being gathered together > an assemblage or collection > [noun] > of people or animals > regarded as a whole or a body of people gathered
weredc725
trumec893
thrumOE
wharfOE
flockOE
farec1275
lithc1275
ferd1297
companyc1300
flotec1300
routc1300
rowc1300
turbc1330
body1340
numberc1350
congregation1382
presencec1390
meiniec1400
storec1400
sum1400
manya1425
collegec1430
peoplec1449
schoola1450
turm1483
catervea1492
garrison?a1513
shoal1579
troop1584
bevy1604
roast1608
horde1613
gross1617
rhapsody1654
sortment1710
tribe1715
1710 L. Milbourne Meas. Resistance to Higher Powers 4 When a sortment of priests, as he with a peculiar elegance, expresses it, endeavour to bully us into slavery.
1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality II. xii. 236 A hundred and fifty visits,..and through such a sortment too, as your mercers say.
c. A kind or class of things.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > kind or sort > [noun] > a kind, sort, or class
kinc950
kindOE
distinction?c1225
rowc1300
spece1303
spice1303
fashionc1325
espicec1386
differencea1398
statec1450
sort?1523
notion1531
species1561
vein1568
brood1581
rank1585
order1588
race1590
breed1598
strain1612
batch1616
tap1623
siege1630
subdivision1646
notionality1651
category1660
denomination1664
footmark1666
genus1666
world1685
sortment1718
tribe1731
assortment1767
description1776
style1794
grouping1799
classification1803
subcategory1842
type1854
basket1916
1718 J. Quincy Pharmacopœia Officinalis 8 The Lightness of this Sortment of Matter.
1722 J. Quincy in Philos. Trans. 1720–21 (Royal Soc.) 31 76 Thus for all cutaneous Foulnesses..the Cinnabar, the Æthiops, and all of that Sortment are in readiness.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
<
n.1598