The Etymology of Sorcerer
A sorcerer began as a lot-caster. In Roman temples, divination by 'sortes' (lots) — drawing inscribed tablets at random — was a common and respectable practice. Latin 'sors' (lot, fate) produced Vulgar Latin *sortiarius (one who casts lots), which Old French reshaped into 'sorcier.' The semantic escalation from fortune-teller to dark wizard happened under Christian influence, which reclassified all pagan divination as demonic. The same root 'sors' produced 'sort' (originally to assign by lot), 'sortie' (a going out, from the drawing of lots to decide who went first), 'consort' (one who shares a fate), and 'sortilege' (divination by lots, the most transparent descendant).