Alternative usage of "to sort"

Solution 1:

The idea of sort used to refer to "something out of the desired order" that needs to be fixed, appears to date back to the old expression "out of sorts" which used to refer to the letters used in typography. The current sense might have developped out of that usage:

• Since at least the 17th century 'sorts' has been the name of the letters used by typographers. This usage is referred to in Notes on a Century of Typography at the University Press Oxford 1693–1794 and is nicely defined in Joseph Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-works - Printing, 1683:

  • "The Letters... in every Box of the Case are... called Sorts in Printers and Founders Language; Thus a is a Sort, b is a Sort."

• For sets of type blocks to be 'out of sorts' would clearly be unwelcome to a typesetter. That terminology could be the source of the phrase and the notion is certainly a tempting one.

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