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START / NODE 272Present-Day English1565–today
select
To choose or mark out from a group, borrowed from Latin selectus and seligere, literally gathering apart.
“To select is historically to gather apart. The word belongs to the same Latin gathering-and-reading family as lecture, lesson, legend, and collect.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishselect
to choose from a group; chosen for value or fitness
↑GO DEEPER
Latin · Latin antiquityselectusselected, chosen
- SOUND CHANGE
- English select borrows Latin selectus with minor English phonological adaptation.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The Latin “chosen apart” sense becomes English adjectival and verbal selection.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established — The source explicitly gives Latin selectus as the English source.
- CHRONOLOGY
- English adjective reported from 1565 and verb from 1566.
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