selectionselection

Selection comes from Latin sēlēctiō ‘the act of choosing out’, from sēligō ‘to choose out’, from sē- ‘apart’ + legō ‘to gather, select’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leǵ-¹‘to gather’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*léǵeti¹reconstructed
3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*legō¹reconstructed
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElegō²‘gather’
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsēligō²‘choose out’
6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsēlēctiō²‘the act of choosing out’
7. Englishearliest quotation 1859selection²

1. ¹ Wiktionary, Latin lego
2. ² Wiktionary, English selection
3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1859, Charles Darwin, Natural Selection: “Slow though the process of selection may be, if…”.