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pick

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English has two main words spelled pick: the verb “to choose, pluck”, and the pointed tool, a variant of pike.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

pick1 choose, pluck

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English picken (“to peck”), later piken,[5][2] probably inherited from Old English *pīcian (“to prick”), implied by pīcung “a pricking”,[5][2][3] fused with Old Norse pikka (“to prick, peck”),[5][2] both akin to Middle Dutch picken (“to prick, peck”) and German picken, perhaps imitative.[5][6] Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary see it partly also from Middle French piquer (“to prick”),[3][1][7] which Etymonline says is generally not considered a source,[5] and the SOED calls the origin uncertain.[8] The noun, an act of picking, is from the verb.[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To peck”: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2][5] “To work with a pick, dig” is from about 1300.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

“To pluck with the fingers, gather” fruit, and “to prick with a pointed instrument”, are from the early 14th century.[5] “To choose, select” is from about 1330,[2] or the late 14th century, from the sense of plucking with the fingers.[5] “To rob, plunder” is from about 1300, weakened to “to pilfer” by the late 14th century.[5] Picking a lock is from the early 15th century,[5] and picking a quarrel from the mid-15th century.[5] “To eat with small bites” is from the 1580s,[5] and plucking a banjo from 1860.[5] The noun's sense “right of first choice” is by 1772, and hence “choicest part” by 1858.[5][9] A plectrum is a pick from 1895.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – to peck.[2]
  • c. 1300 – to dig; to rob.[5][2]
  • early 14th century – to pluck, gather.[5]
  • c. 1330 – to choose.[2]
  • mid-15th century – to pick a quarrel.[5]
  • 1580s – to eat in small bites.[5]
  • 1772 – noun, first choice.[5]
  • 1860 – to pluck a banjo.[5]
  • 1895 – a plectrum.[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To choose from a group; to select.
  2. To gather or harvest: to pick apples.
  3. To remove by pulling or with a pointed tool.
  4. To open a lock without a key.
  5. To pluck the strings of an instrument.
  6. To provoke: to pick a fight.

Noun

  1. The act of choosing; a choice.
  2. The best or choicest part.
  3. A plectrum.

Word family

  • picker
  • pickpocket
  • picklock
  • toothpick
  • pick-up
  • pick-me-up
  • nitpick

pick2 tool

Etymology

The tool is inherited from Middle English pic, later pikke,[2] a variant of pike, “a sharp point”,[5][2][1][8] ultimately inherited from Old English pīc (“a point, pick”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A pickaxe: probably before 1200,[2] or about 1200.[5] The OED's first quotation is from 1340.[9]

Semantic evolution

A pointed hammer for dressing millstones is from 1483,[9] and a spike or point from 1495.[9] The pick also named a pitchfork or hay-fork from 1410.[9] In archaeology a prehistoric implement for breaking rock is from 1949.[9] Other pointed tools for picking, such as an ice pick and a toothpick, are named with pick,[11] and an instrument for picking locks is by 1890.[5]

Timeline

  • before 1200 – a pickaxe.[2]
  • 1410 – a pitchfork.[9]
  • 1483 – a millstone hammer.[9]
  • 1890 – a lock pick.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A tool with a curved bar pointed at one or both ends, fixed to a long handle, for breaking hard ground or rock; a pickaxe.
  2. A pointed tool for picking: an ice pick.
  3. A comb with long teeth for curly hair.

Word family

  • pickaxe
  • ice pick
  • peck
  • pike
  • pique
  • pitch
  • picket
  • pickle

Usage notes

A third pick, in weaving a throw of the shuttle or a single thread of the weft, is from a dialect verb “to pitch, throw”, a variant of pitch.[11][8][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin