diff --git a/Doc/library/select.rst b/Doc/library/select.rst
--- a/Doc/library/select.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/select.rst
@@ -18,9 +18,17 @@ The module defines the following:
 
 .. exception:: error
 
-   The exception raised when an error occurs.  The accompanying value is a pair
-   containing the numeric error code from :c:data:`errno` and the corresponding
-   string, as would be printed by the C function :c:func:`perror`.
+   The exception raised when an error occurs.  This exception is derived from
+   :exc:`OSError`.  The accompanying value is a pair containing the numeric error code
+   from :c:data:`errno` and the corresponding string, as would be printed by
+   the C function :c:func:`perror`.  The :attr:`errno` attribute contains the
+   error code.
+
+   See the module :mod:`errno`, which contains names for the error codes
+   defined by the underlying operating system.
+
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.3
+      The exception is now derived from :exc:`OSError`.
 
 
 .. function:: epoll(sizehint=-1)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_select.py b/Lib/test/test_select.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_select.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_select.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
+import errno
+import os
+import select
+import sys
+import unittest
 from test import support
-import unittest
-import select
-import os
-import sys
 
 @unittest.skipIf(sys.platform[:3] in ('win', 'os2', 'riscos'),
                  "can't easily test on this system")
@@ -22,6 +23,18 @@ class SelectTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, select.select, [], [], [], "not a number")
         self.assertRaises(ValueError, select.select, [], [], [], -1)
 
+    def test_errno(self):
+        with open(__file__, 'rb') as fp:
+            fd = fp.fileno()
+            fp.close()
+            try:
+                select.select([fd], [], [])
+            except select.error as err:
+                self.assertEqual(err.errno, errno.EBADF)
+                self.assertTrue(isinstance(err, OSError))
+            else:
+                self.fail("exception not raised")
+
     def test_returned_list_identity(self):
         # See issue #8329
         r, w, x = select.select([], [], [], 1)
diff --git a/Modules/selectmodule.c b/Modules/selectmodule.c
--- a/Modules/selectmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/selectmodule.c
@@ -1785,7 +1785,7 @@ PyInit_select(void)
     if (m == NULL)
         return NULL;
 
-    SelectError = PyErr_NewException("select.error", NULL, NULL);
+    SelectError = PyErr_NewException("select.error", PyExc_OSError, NULL);
     Py_INCREF(SelectError);
     PyModule_AddObject(m, "error", SelectError);