Choosing

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃuːzɪŋ/

Definitions

1. The act of picking or selecting one or more items from a range of possibilities
2. Making a decision by identifying one option out of several available choices
3. The process of deciding between alternatives and determining the preferred option

Etymology: "Choosing" is simply the present participle and gerund of "choose", so its story is really the story of the verb. That verb descends from an Old English word, "ċēosan", which meant far more than selecting: it could also mean to test, to taste, to approve, or to settle for something. The sense of trying or sampling sits at the heart of it, and the word is linked to Latin "gustō", "to taste", and to Greek "geúō", which also carried the sense of trying something out. The ancestor reaches back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to taste or try," which suggests that choosing was once a kind of testing by sense. Germanic languages kept that root alive: Dutch "kiezen" and German "kiesen" both mean "to choose," and Icelandic "kjósa" means "to vote" as well as "to choose." A curious sibling also exists. "Choice" and "choose" share a family line, and English once had a northern form, "chose," that served as a noun meaning "choice," which later became a doublet of "choice" itself.

Synonyms: selecting, deciding, picking