Third person singular present tense of allot; gives out or distributes something to people as their share or portion.
From Old French 'aloter' and Middle English 'aloten,' derived from 'a-' (to) and 'lot' (a portion). The word originally meant to give someone their luck or fate (lot) and evolved to mean assigning shares in general.
The word 'allot' contains 'lot' (as in lottery or one's lot in life), which is why it originally meant 'to assign by fate'—medieval people used the phrase 'cast lots' to decide things randomly, just like we use a coin flip or draw names from a hat.
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