choice: [13] Choice is a French formation, although like the verb with which it is linked, choose, its ancestry is Germanic. The source of the English word was Old French chois, a derivative of the verb choisir ‘choose’, which came ultimately from the same Germanic base, *kaus- or *keus-, as produced choose. English had its own native formation, Old English cyre ‘choice’, which died out in Middle English times; had it survived to the present day, it might have been something like kire. => choose
mid-14c., "that which is choice," from choice (adj.) blended with earlier chois (n.) "action of selecting" (c. 1300); "power of choosing" (early 14c.), "someone or something chosen" (late 14c.), from Old French chois "one's choice; fact of having a choice" (12c., Modern French choix), from verb choisir "to choose, distinguish, discern; recognize, perceive, see," from Frankish or some other Germanic source related to Old English ceosan "to choose, taste, try;" see choose. Late Old English chis "fastidious, choosy," from or related to ceosan, probably also contributed to the development of choice.
Replaced Old English cyre "choice, free will," from the same base, probably because the imported word was closer to choose [see note in OED].
