Carefully selected by hand, usually because someone personally chose the best options for a specific purpose.
From Old English 'hand' and Middle English 'picked' (from Old Norse 'pīka'). The phrase 'hand-pick' literally meant to pick something by hand, evolving by the 1800s to mean selective, deliberate choice.
This word reveals how physical actions become metaphors—we still use 'hand' to mean personal choice even though most selections today have nothing to do with actual hands. It's how our language preserves the ghost of older ways of working.
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