Other forms: elected, elects, electing
To elect is to choose somebody for a post by voting. Elect a leader, newly elected, elect to stay.
It also means to choose to do something, as in electing to take the earlier train, which is formal but ordinary. As a suffix, president elect means chosen but not yet in office, and the hyphen is optional.
1verbelectTo choose somebody for a post by voting.
“The town will elect a new mayor next month.”
elect is a choosing.
Latin eligere means to pick out, from ex plus legere, to choose.
Proto-Indo-European
*leǵ-
Latin
ēlēctus
English, today
elect
Built from
Borrowed from Latin ēlēctus, past participle of ēligō (“to pick out, choose, elect”), from ē- (“out”) + legō (“to pick out, pick, gather, collect, etc.”); see legend. Cognate to eclectic, which is via Ancient Greek - rather than Latin -, hence prefix ἐκ, rather than e- (from ex).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA