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Thursday, March 19, 2020




THIS SMALL WORD REALLY SAYS A LOT
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
MARCH 19, 2020

IF YOU THINK BACK TO YOUR EARLIEST ENGLISH COMPOSITION CLASSES, YOU WILL REMEMBER THAT TEACHERS TRY TO ELIMINATE PHRASES WHICH ARE IMPRECISE TO THE POINT OF BEING NEARLY USELESS. THE WAY WE USE THE WORD “LOT” IS ONE OF THOSE. DAILY WHEN I’M DOING THESE BLOGS, I HAVE TO GO OVER THEM TO CLIP OUT THE KIND OF THING WHICH WE VERY OFTEN SAY BUT KNOW BETTER THAN TO WRITE, OR WHICH ARE SUCH AN HABITUAL WAY OF SPEAKING THAT THEY BECOME REPETITIVE WITHIN THE SAME PIECE OF WRITING. “A LOT” IS IN THAT CLASS FOR ME. AS I WAS MAKING ONE OF THOSE CORRECTIONS TONIGHT, I THOUGHT ABOUT THE FACT THAT I’VE NEVER SEEN A DEFINITION OF THE WORD LOT. “AN INDETERMINATE BUT LARGE QUANTITY” IS WHAT WE USUALLY MEAN WHEN WE SAY “LOTS.” IT WILL VERY LIKELY BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SHRUG. TO FILL IN THAT GAP IN MY KNOWLEDGE, I SEARCHED IT TONIGHT AND FOUND REALLY A LOT OF OTHER INFO ON THE SUBJECT. 



lot noun (1)
\ ˈlät  \

Definition of lot 

(Entry 1 of 4)
1: an object used as a counter in determining a question by chance [SEE CLEROMANCY, BELOW.]

2a: the use of lots as a means of deciding something
One was chosen by lot to represent the group.
b: the resulting choice

3a: something that comes to one upon whom a lot has fallen : SHARE
The will provided for equal lots for all the children.
b: one's way of life or worldly fate : FORTUNE
the lot of man, to suffer and to die
— Alexander Pope

4a: a portion of land
b: a measured parcel of land having fixed boundaries and designated on a plot or survey
built his home on a half-acre lot
c: a motion-picture studio and its adjoining property
d: an establishment for the storage or sale of motor vehicles
a used car lot

5a: a number of units of an article, a single article, or a parcel of articles offered as one item (as in an auction sale)
Lot 45 is a dining room set.
b: all the members of a present group, kind, or quantity —usually used with the
sampled the whole lot of desserts

6a: a number of associated persons : SET
fell in with a rough lot
b: KIND, SORT
The recruits were a sorry lot.

7: a considerable quantity or extent
a lot of money
lots of friends

all over the lot
: covering a wide or varied range
received bids all over the lot

a lot
1: to a considerable degree or extent
this is a lot nicer
2: OFTEN, FREQUENTLY
runs a lot every day
3: LOTS
lot verb

lotted; lotting
Definition of lot (Entry 2 of 4)

transitive verb

1: ALLOT, APPORTION
2: to form or divide into lots

Lot noun (2)
\ ˈlät  \
Definition of Lot (Entry 3 of 4)
: a nephew of Abraham who according to the account in Genesis escaped from the doomed city of Sodom with his wife who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back

Lot geographical name
\ ˈlät  , ˈlȯt \
Definition of Lot (Entry 4 of 4)
river 300 miles (483 kilometers) long in southern France flowing west into the Garonne River

Synonyms: Noun (1)

parcel, plat, plot, property, tract

Synonyms: Verb

allocate, allot, allow, apportion, assign, distribute, ration
Visit the Thesaurus for More

Choose the Right Synonym for lot
Noun (1)

FATE, DESTINY, LOT, PORTION, DOOM mean a predetermined state or end. FATE implies an inevitable and usually an adverse outcome.  the fate of the submarine is unknown  DESTINY implies something foreordained and often suggests a great or noble course or end.  the country's destiny to be a model of liberty to the world  LOT and PORTION imply a distribution by fate or destiny, LOT suggesting blind chance  it was her lot to die childless  , PORTION implying the apportioning of good and evil.  remorse was his daily portion DOOM distinctly implies a grim or calamitous fate.  if the rebellion fails, his doom is certain

Examples of lot in a Sentence
Noun (1)
 He bought the vacant lot across the street.
 They own the house on the corner lot.

First Known Use of lot

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

circa 1534, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for lot

Noun (1)

Middle English lot, lott "object used to decide a matter by chance, decision by the use of such objects, what one receives through such a decision, destiny, share," going back to Old English hlot, going back to Germanic *hluta- (whence also Old Frisian hlot, lot "lot," Old High German hluz, Old Norse hlutr), noun derivative from a verb *hleutan- "to cast lots" (whence Old English hlēotan "to cast lots, obtain, gain as one's lot," Old Saxon hliotan "to obtain," Old High German liozan "to cast lots," Old Norse hjlóta "to get by lot, obtain, undergo"), of uncertain origin

Financial Definition of lot

What It Is

A lot is a securities trade for a “standard” number of trading units. In stock trading, a lot is 100 shares (also called a "round lot"). However, inactive stocks generally trade in 10-share lots. 


CASTING LOTS

I WONDER IF THIS IS NOT THE OLDEST OR ONE OF THE OLDEST USES FOR THE WORD “LOT,” BECAUSE IN THIS DEFINITION AT LEAST, IT GOES DIRECTLY INTO THE AREA OF RELIGIOUS MAGIC. FORMS OF DIVINATION WERE CONSIDERED SUPERIOR TO HUMAN REASONING, APPARENTLY, IN DEFINING WHAT IS OR SHOULD BE THE TRUTH OR THE WILL OF GOD. THAT EXPLAINS “A LOT” TO ME ABOUT HOW SOME MODERN RELIGIONS HOP DIRECTLY TO MENTAL BLINDNESS AND TO GROUP COHESION AT ALL COSTS. “THOUGHT AND SCIENCE” DESTROY THAT UNITY BY CREATING INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETATION AND INEVITABLY, DISUNITY. PRETTY SOON, “TRUTH” IS NO LONGER TRUTH, AND THAT’S VERY DANGEROUS.

I AGREE THAT A PROCESS THAT LEADS US AWAY FROM TRUTH IS DESTRUCTIVE INDEED, BUT I DEFINE THE WAY OF DECIDING WHAT IS TRUE AS BEING RATIONAL, FACTUAL, DEMONSTRABLE AND SCIENTIFIC, RATHER THAN ETHEREAL OR PURPOSELY IRRATIONAL. TO DAMN RATIONALITY TO HELL IS THE ULTIMATE DISRUPTER, IN THAT IT WILL INEVITABLY PRODUCE THE PROGRESSIVE LOWERING OF INTELLIGENCE AND SANITY. HEAVEN HELP A SOCIETY THAT ENCOURAGES THAT.

READ AT LEAST THE FIRST PARAGRAPHS OF THIS CLEROMANCY ARTICLE TO GET A GIST OF IT. IT’S ALL INTERESTING, BUT NOT ALL PERTINENT TO THIS RAMBLING PURSUIT OF THE “LOT,” SO I HAVE NOT INCLUDED MORE.

Cleromancy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[For the use of random selection as a way to make a fair form of selection, see Sortition.]

Cleromancy is a form of sortition, casting of lots, in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice, but are sometimes believed to reveal the will of God, or other supernatural entities.

In classical civilization

In ancient Rome fortunes were told through the casting of lots or “sortes.”
[Sortes: sor·tes, /ˈsôrˌtēz,-ˌtāz/ -- “divination, or the seeking of guidance, by chance selection of a passage in the Bible or another text regarded as authoritative.”]

In Judeo-Christian tradition

Casting lots for tribal inheritance, woodcut for Die Bibel in Bildern, 1860, Joshua, Chapter 14

Casting of lots occurs relatively frequently in the Bible. The Hebrew Bible contains several examples of the casting of lots as a means of determining God's will:

In the Book of Leviticus 16:8, God commanded Moses, "And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat."
 . . . .

The most extensive use of drawing of lots in the Pietist tradition may have come with Count von Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren of Herrnhut, who drew lots for many purposes, including selection of church sites, approval of missionaries, the election of bishops and many others. This practice was greatly curtailed after the General Synod of the worldwide Moravian Unity in 1818[citation needed] and finally discontinued in the 1880s. Many Amish customarily select ordinary preachers by lot. (Note that the Greek word for "lot" (kleros) serves as the etymological root for English words like "cleric" and "clergy" as well as for "cleromancy".[3]) . . . .


FOR MORE FASCINATIN’ STUFF, GO TO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat.



SIMILAR MATERIAL BUT WITH DIFFERENT DETAILS FROM WICTIONARY.ORG.


English
Etymology

From Middle English lot, from Old English hlot (“portion, choice, decision”), from Proto-Germanic *hlutą. Cognate with North Frisian lod, Saterland Frisian Lot, West Frisian lot, Dutch lot, French lot, German Low German Lott, Middle High German luz. Related also to German Los.

Noun
lot (plural lots)

Lot, noun definition 5
A large quantity or number; a great deal.
Synonyms: load, mass, pile
to spend a lot of money
lots of people think so

A separate portion; a number of things taken collectively.
Synonyms: batch, collection, group, set

a lot of stationery
One or more items auctioned or sold as a unit, separate from other items.

(informal) A number of people taken collectively.
Synonyms: crowd, gang, group
a sorry lot
a bad lot

A distinct portion or plot of land, usually smaller than a field.
Synonyms: allotment, parcel, plot
a building lot in a city

That which happens without human design or forethought.
Synonyms: chance, accident, destiny, fate, fortune

Anything (as a die, pebble, ball, or slip of paper) used in determining a question by chance, or without human choice or will.
to cast lots
to draw lots
The part, or fate, that falls to one, as it were, by chance, or without his planning.

A prize in a lottery.
Synonym: prize
(Can we find and add a quotation of Evelyn to this entry?)

Allotment; lottery.
(definite, the lot) All members of a set; everything.
The table was loaded with food, but by evening there was nothing but crumbs; we had eaten the lot.

If I were in charge, I'd fire the lot of them.
(historical) An old unit of weight used in many European countries from the Middle Ages, often defined as 1/30 or 1/32 of a (local) pound. 

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