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 printersʹ 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.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.