Brewer's: Sorts

Out of sorts. Not in good health and spirits. The French être dérangé explains the metaphor. If cards are out of sorts they are deranged, and if a person is out of sorts the health or spirits are out of order.

In printers' language it means out of some particular letter, in which case they substitute for a time another letter.

To run upon sorts.
In printing, said of work which requires an unusual number of certain letters, etc.; as an index, which requires a disproportionate number of capitals.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Sosia
Sortes Virgilianae
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