SOS 
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364 
the earth, and minerals with minerals; but both in common 
together. Woodward. —To consort; to join.—The illibera¬ 
lly of parents towards their children, makes them base, and 
sort with any company. Bacon. —To suit; to fit. 
The Creator calling forth by name 
His mighty angels, gave them several charge, 
As sorted best with present things. Milton. 
[Sortir , to issue, French.] To determine ; to issue.—It 
sorted not to any fight, but to a retreat. Bacon. —Princes 
cannot gather this fruit, except they raise some persons to be 
companions; which many times sorteth to inconvenience. 
Bacon. —To have success; to terminate in the effect desired. 
—The slips of their vines have been brought into Spain, but 
they have not sorted to the same purpose as in their native 
country. Abbot. —To fall out. [from sort, a lot. French.] 
And so far am I glad it did so sort. 
As this their jangling I esteem a sport. Shakspeare. 
SORT, a seaport town of Tripoli, in Africa, situated 
in the gulf of Sidra or Syrtis. Lat. 30. 28. N. long. 
16. 55. E. 
SO'RTaBLE, adj. [portable, Fr.] Suitable; befitting; 
Cotgrave and Sherwood. —The flourishing state of learning, 
sort able to so excellent a princess. Bacon. 
SO'RTABLY. adv. Suitably; fitly. Cotgrave and Sher¬ 
wood. 
SO'RTAL, adj. A word formed by Locke, but not yet 
received.—As things are ranked under names, into sorts or 
species only as they agree to certain abstract ideas, the essence 
of each sort comes to be nothing but that idea which the 
sortal, if I may so call it from sort, as I do general from 
genus, name stands for. Locke. 
SO'RTANCE, s. Suitableness; agreement. 
Here doth he wish his person, with such power 
As might hold sortance with his quality. 
The which he could not levy Shakspeare. 
SORTASCH, a village of European Russia, in the Cri¬ 
mea, near Bachiserai. 
SORTES, Lots, in Antiquity, a method of deciding 
dubious cases, where there appeared no ground for a prefer¬ 
ence ; by referring the decision to chance; as in casting of 
dice, drawing of tickets, &c. 
SO'RTILEGE, s. [ sortilegium, Lat.] The act or prac¬ 
tice of drawing lots. 
SORTILE'GIOUS, adj. Relating to sortilege.—Horace 
makes the blood of frogs an ingredient in sortilegious 
charms. Daubui. 
SORTING, a town of Sicily in the quarter called Val di 
Noto. Population 6000. It is an inland place, of little 
commercial intercourse, and seldom visited by travellers. 
SORTINSKOI, a village of Tobolsk, in Asiatic Russia; 
72 miles south-south-west of Beresof. 
SORTITION, s. [ sortitio, Lat.] Selection or appoint¬ 
ment by lot. Cockeram. —The soldiers have parted thy 
o-arments, and cast lots upon thy seamless coat: those poor 
spoils cannot so much enrich them as glorify thee, whose 
Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions. Bp. 
Hall. 
SO'RTMENT, s. The act of sorting; distribution.— 
A parcel sorted or distributed. 
SORUT, a district of Hindostan, province of Gujerat, the 
proper name of which is Cottiwar. 
SOS, a town of Spain, in Arragon, with 2400 inhabitants; 
4 miles south-south-east of Sanguesa. 
SOSA, a large village of Germany, in Saxony, where there is 
a considerable manufacture and export of tin ; 25 miles south- 
south-west of Chemnitz. 
SOSHA, a large river of European Russia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Orel. It falls into the Wolga, 
SOSIGENES, a Peripatetic philosopher, and skilful as¬ 
tronomer, was brought from Egypt by Julius Caesar, with 
the view expressly of assisting him in reforming the calendar. 
The philosopher, by tolerably accurate observations, disco¬ 
vered that the year was 365 days and 6 hours; and to make 
allowance for the odd hours, he invented the intercalation 
of one day in four years; and the duplication of the sixth 
day before the calends of March was the intercalary day: and 
hence the year in which this took place was called Bissex¬ 
tile. This was called the Julian year, the reckoning by which 
commenced in the 45th year B. C. and continued till it gave 
place to something more accurate, and a still farther reforma¬ 
tion under Pope Gregory XIII. Sosigenes was author of a 
commentary upon Aristotle’s book “De Ccelo.” 
SOSNITZA, a small town of European Russia, in the 
government of Czernigov; 50 miles east-by-north of Czer- 
nigov. 
SOSNOVOI, an island in the river Angara, in Asiatic 
Russia; 96 miles north-north-west of Ilimsk. 
SOSNOUSKOI, a village of Asiatic Russia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Kolivan. Lat. 55. 50. N. long. 85. 44. E. 
SOSPELLO, a domain or district of the Sardinian states, 
formed of part of the county of Nice, and containing nearly 
40,000 inhabitants. 
SOSPELLO, a town of the Sardinian states, in Piedmont, 
on the river Bevara. Population 3200; 10 miles north-east 
of Nice. 
To SOSS, v. n. [A cant word. Dr. Johnson .—Perhaps 
a corruption of To souse, from the Fr. sous, down.] To sit 
lazily on a chair; to fall at once into a chair. 
The winter sky began to frown, »• 
Poor Stella must pack off to town ; 
From wholesome exercise and air. 
To sossing in an easy chair. Swift. 
SOSS, s. A lazy fellow; a lusk. Cotgrave and Sher¬ 
wood. 
SOSTE, a navigable river of Westphalia, which rises in 
the principality of Osnabruck, flows through Lower Munster 
and East Friesland, and falls into the Ems near Leer. 
SOSTRATUS, the most eminent architect of his time, 
was a native of Gnidos, in Lesser Asia, and flourished in the 
third century before the Christian era. The patronage which 
he met with, caused him to be denominated the friend of 
kings; and he was particularly in favour with Ptolemy Phil- 
adelphus, sovereign of Egypt. He is celebrated in history 
likewise for the terraces, supported on arcades, which 
adorned his native city; and the famous Pharos, the light¬ 
house of Alexandria, which was reckoned one of the win¬ 
ders of the world. He transmitted his name to posterity by 
an inscription on this light-house, in the Greek language, of 
which the translation is, “ Sostratus of Gnidos, the 
son of Dexiphanes, dedicates this to the gods, the pro¬ 
tectors of navigators.” 
SOSVA, the name of two considerable rivers of the govern¬ 
ment of Tobolsk, in Asiatic Russia. The first rises in the 
Ourals, about the 65th degree of north lat., and running al¬ 
most due east, falls into the Obi, near Beresof, after a course 
of about 160 miles. It receives a smaller river of the same 
name, called the Little Sosva. The other river rises in the 
same chain of mountains, but somewhat farther to the south ; 
and after running southwards about 200 miles, joins the 
Sosva, when the united streams take the name of Tauda. 
SOT, s. [j'oc, Norm. Sax. poc-pcipe, a state of folly; 
sot, Fr., sot, Teut. The word is old in our language: “as 
it were a sote, I stood astonied.” Chaucer, Flower and Leaf. 
Serenius refers the word to the Icel. saud, pecus, bestia.] A 
blockhead; a dull ignorant stupid fellow; a dolt. 
Of the loyal service of his son. 
When I inform’d him, then he call’d me sot ; 
And told me I had turn’d the wrong side out. Shakspeare. 
A wretch stupified by drinking. 
To SOT, v. a. To stupify; to besot; to infatuate.—-The 
soted priest, who was gladder than he? Chaucer. 
I am sotted. 
Utterly lost; my virgin’s faith has fled me. Beaum. and FI. 
To SOT, v. n. To tipple to stupidity. 
SOTA 
