Other forms: pickers
A picker is somebody who gathers fruit, or a tool that lifts. A fruit picker, an apple picker, a litter picker.
The human sense covers seasonal agricultural work, which in Britain has depended heavily on migrant labour and has been in difficulty since that supply changed. The tool sense covers a litter picker and an apple picker on a pole. In warehouses a picker is the person who collects items for an order. Note pick; and that picker is one of the plainest -er formations in the language.
1nounfruitSomebody who gathers fruit.
“The farm hires extra pickers every summer to bring in the strawberries.”
2nounpickerA tool for lifting or gathering.
“Volunteers used litter pickers to collect rubbish from the beach.”
picker is a gatherer or a tool.
Middle English pikere is pick plus -er. Pick has two roots that merged — one about pecking and one about picking out — and the noun serves both.
Middle English
pikere
English, today
picker
From Middle English pikere, pykare, equivalent to pick + er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA