picker

Etymology

It is formed from English pick + -er,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the agent noun of the verb.^[5] The OED compares Middle Dutch picker (“stonemason, harvester, thief”), modern Dutch pikker.^[2] The verb pick, Middle English piken, probably fuses Old English *pician (“to prick”) with Old Norse pikka (“to prick, peck”).^[5][7] The OED notes an apparently earlier record in the Worcestershire field name “Picereshomm”, in a copy, made before 1200, of charter bounds probably compiled in the late 11th century, where the word is probably a personal name of unclear meaning.^[2] It is also found earlier as a surname (Richard le Pickere in 1188, Stephanus Pikere in 1199), though these may reflect an Anglo-Norman equivalent of Old French piqueur (“maker of pickaxes”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who steals, especially small things that can easily be picked up; a pilferer: 1350, in the London plea and memoranda rolls.^[2] Etymonline's first record of this sense is from the 1520s,^[5] and Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The thief of the first records was later usually a pickpocket.^[2] From 1481 the word also named pointed tools for picking, such as a mattock, pickaxe, picklock or toothpick,^[2] then from about 1518 a person who seeks out an occasion, as a picker of quarrels.^[2] Trade senses followed: from 1536 a worker who picks apart or cards wool or cotton, later also the machine that does it,^[2][5] then from 1611 a person who gathers fruit, flowers or crops, often in compounds such as hop-picker and cotton-picker.^[2][8] Johnson (1755) gave "one who picks or culls" and a pickaxe.^[9] From 1778 a picker was also a person who picks out or selects,^[2] from 1805 a machine for harvesting crops,^[2] then from 1884 a rag-picker who searches rubbish for scraps.^[2] The musical sense, a player who plucks the strings of a banjo or guitar, is colloquial and originally American: the OED has it from 1869,^[2] Etymonline from 1923.^[5] In thieves' slang pickers were hands, from 1846, later in African-American use.^[10] Merriam-Webster also records a dealer's sense, a person who finds antiques and collectibles to sell on to dealers.^[3] In Scotland a picker was a young fish, especially one too small to take bait (1895, in Flora Annie Steel's Red Rowans).^[2][11] In the northeastern and north central United States picker is also a burr or prickle.^[12]

Timeline

• 1350 – a petty thief, pilferer.^[2]
• 1481 – a pointed tool for picking.^[2]
• c. 1518 – a person who seeks out an occasion, as a picker of quarrels.^[2]
• 1536 – a person who picks apart or cards wool or cotton.^[2]
• 1611 – a person who gathers fruit, flowers or crops.^[2]
• 1778 – a person who picks out or selects.^[2]
• 1805 – a machine for picking or harvesting crops.^[2]
• 1846 – slang, a hand, usually in the plural.^[10]
• 1869 – a player of a plucked instrument such as the banjo or guitar.^[2]
• 1884 – a rag-picker.^[2]
• 1895 – in Scotland, a young fish.^[2][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who picks or harvests fruit or crops, often in compounds: The farm hires extra pickers every September.^[3][2][8]
2. A worker who selects suitable material or articles, or who removes unwanted matter from them.^[3][2]
3. A machine or tool for picking, as one that harvests crops or cleans and loosens fibres.^[3][2]
4. A person who plucks the strings of an instrument such as the banjo or guitar.^[3][2]
5. A person who finds antiques and collectibles and sells them to dealers.^[3]
6. A person who works with a pickaxe.^[3][9]
7. A petty thief or pickpocket.^[2][5]
8. (slang) A hand; usually in the plural.^[10]
9. (Scotland, rare) A young fish, especially one too small to take bait.^[2][11]

Word family

• ragpicker
• picker-upper

Related words

• pick
• pickpocket
• toothpick

Usage notes

In weaving, picker also names the small device in the shuttle-box of a loom that drives the shuttle to and fro through the warp.^[2][4] The OED and the Shorter Oxford form it from the other verb pick, to throw, and date it from 1794 and the early 19th century,^[2][4] while Merriam-Webster dates it to the 13th century.^[3] Wordorigins notes that cotton-picker and cotton-picking arose from a metaphor for slavery in the American South and can still carry a racist connotation.^[13] In Australian and New Zealand shearing, a picker-up is a shedhand who gathers up the shorn fleeces.^[8][14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ a b c Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
13. ^ Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "cotton-picking / cotton-picker", 22 August 2025
14. ^ Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press