In your readings, you may have seen the Latin phrase alea iacta est. It means "The die is cast," i.e., a sequence of events has irrevocably begun, and all we can do now is follow fortune. (Die is the singular of dice.) Interestingly, the alea (die) is preserved in the French adjective aléatoire, which means "random." See? It's all connected.*
Another interconnection: the iacta, past tense of "throw," shows up in English and French (and possibly other languages) as the ject/jet particle in words like eject/éjecter (etym. "throw out"), reject/rejeter (etym. "throw back"), project/projeter (etym. "throw forward"), etc.
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*The English aleatory means "of uncertain outcome."
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