Fine distinctions between verbs

Past a certain point it is no longer new words that are missing but the differences between familiar ones. The verb to carry away is sortear, in sortear un obstáculo. It means getting round something that is in the way — a pothole, an awkward question, a rule. And it is the verb for drawing lots: sortean tres entradas entre los socios, and el sorteo is the draw itself. English has nothing that does both jobs; it says « to raffle » for the one and « to get round » for the other, and the two have not met since Latin, where <em>sors</em> was the lot that was cast. Spanish kept the lot and added the swerve, so that avoiding an obstacle and drawing a number are, in the word itself, the same piece of luck.