Sorters

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of devices or individuals that organize items into categories based on specified criteria
2. Machines or systems designed to classify and separate materials for efficiency
3. People engaged in the task of arranging various objects by type or function

Etymology: Sorters is simply the plural of "sorter," and the most useful thing to know is how the parts fit together. The base is the English verb "sort," which came into English from Old French and ultimately from Latin "sors," meaning "lot" or "fate," since sorting was once a matter of drawing lots. The ending "-er" is a suffix meaning one who or that which performs an action, so a sorter is a thing or person that sorts. The suffix has a longer pedigree than the verb. It descends from a Latin ending "-arius," which passed through Old French "-ier" and reached English as "-er" in Middle English. The same ending appears in words like "baker" and "writer," which is why "sorter" feels so ordinary. Its modern sense, applied to machines that separate parcels or data, is a straightforward extension of that old pattern.

Synonyms: organizers, arrangers