'Select' is Latin for 'choose apart' — from 'legere' (to gather). Kin to 'elect' and 'intellect.'
To carefully choose from a number of alternatives, implying deliberation and discrimination among options.
From Latin 'selectus,' past participle of 'seligere' (to choose out, to pick out, to sort), composed of 'se-' (apart, away) + 'legere' (to gather, to pick, to choose, to read). The PIE root is *leǵ- (to collect, to gather). The prefix 'se-' (from PIE *s(w)e-, apart, reflexive) added the crucial nuance of separation: to select is not merely to gather but
The Latin verb 'legere' originally meant 'to gather' (as in picking fruit or harvesting), and only later acquired the meaning 'to read' — because reading was conceived as 'gathering' letters with the eyes. This single verb produced 'select' (gather apart), 'collect' (gather together), 'elect' (gather out), 'intellect' (gather between, i.e., discern), and 'lecture