sortition means selection by drawing lots. It carries an Arena rating of 1614, earned across 12 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sortition ranks #1,166 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,266 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #2,234 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #3,337 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
sortition is pronounced /sɔːˈtɪ.ʃən/.
Why “sortition” is a great word
Selection by drawing lots. From the Latin sortītiō, sortītiōn- ('a casting or drawing of lots'), from sortīrī ('to cast or draw lots'), first attested in English 1590–1600. Unlike election, which implies a contest of will and persuasion, or appointment, which confers the weight of authority, sortition is the surrender to impartial chance. It is the shaken urn in the Athenian assembly, the blind stab of a pin into a list of names, the decisive tumble of a single dice in a silent chamber—a humble machinery that replaces ambition with accident, trusting the aggregate fairness of randomness over the curated flaws of choice.
Etymology
From Latin sortītiō.
noun
- Selection by drawing lots.e.g.“Demarchy — also called sortition — is a form of governance that selects the representatives of the people as a random sample from a pool of candidates.” — 2018 April 6, Antony P. Mueller, “Forget Electoral Democracy — Give “Demarchy” a Chance”, in Mises Institute:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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