sorcerer [LME] A sorcerer was originally a sorser. The word comes via Old French sorcier from Latin sors ‘lot, fortune’, the root of sort [LME]. The Latin relates to the use of oracles and the casting of lots to foretell the future. A sorcerer’s apprentice [M20th] is a person who starts a process but is then unable to control it without help. This is the translation of the French L’apprenti sorcier, the title of an 1897 symphonic poem by Paul Dukas based on Der Zauberlehrling, a ballad written in 1797 by the German poet and dramatist Goethe. In this ballad the apprentice’s use of magic spells when his master is absent sets in motion a series of events which he cannot control. The 1940 Disney cartoon of the story made it widely known.