In a manner related to dice or chance; by the way of dice or fortune.
From Middle English 'die' (a single cube for gaming) plus 'wise' (manner or direction, from Old English 'wīs'). The suffix '-wise' originally meant 'in the direction of' and evolved to mean 'in the manner of' by the 14th century.
The suffix '-wise' became so popular in English that we now attach it to almost anything—clockwise, likewise, lengthwise—but it originally meant literal direction! When medieval people said 'diewise,' they were talking about something happening the way a die falls.
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