derive

From Middle English deriven, from Old French deriver, from Latin dērīvō (“to lead, turn, or draw off (a liquid), draw off, derive”), from dē (“away”) + rīvus (“a stream”); see rival. Unrelated to arrive.

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈɹaɪv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪv

derive (third-person singular simple present derives, present participle deriving, simple past and past participle derived)

1. (transitive) To obtain or receive (something) from something else.

   Reading books is the best way to derive knowledge.

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Relates How Mr. Pickwick, with the Assistance of Samuel Weller, Essayed to Soften the Heart of Mr. Benjamin Allen, and to Mollify the Wrath of Mr. Robert Sawyer”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 508:

     Bob the aforesaid, and his present chances of deriving a competent independence from the honourable profession to which he had devoted himself.

   • 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

2. (transitive, logic) To deduce (a conclusion) by reasoning.
3. (transitive, linguistics) To find the derivation of (a word or phrase).
4. (transitive, chemistry) To create (a compound) from another by means of a reaction.
5. (intransitive) To originate or stem (from).

   Her excellent organisation skills derive from her time as a secretary in the army.

   • 1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 273:

     Britannia's firebox would appear to have derived from those of the Bulleid Pacifics, which it closely resembles.

   • 2010, Peter Morville, Jeffery Callender, Search Patterns: Design for Discovery:

     Today, popularity is typically a multialgorithmic measure. At Flickr, a photo's interestingness derives from views, comments, notes, bookmarks, favorites...

   • 2012 January, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 31:

     As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.

6. To turn the course of (water, etc.); to divert and distribute into subordinate channels.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
     Book 33

     For fear it [water] choke up the pits […] they [the workman] deriue it by other drains.

7. (transitive, mathematics, proscribed) To differentiate (a function).

• “derive”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “derive”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• drivee, reived, revied, rieved

• IPA^(key): /deˈɾibe/ [d̪eˈɾi.β̞e]
• Rhymes: -ibe
• Syllabification: de‧ri‧ve

derive

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of derivar

derive

1. inflection of derivar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

derive f pl

1. plural of deriva

• rideve, rivede, vedrei

derive

1. inflection of derivar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /deˈɾibe/ [d̪eˈɾi.β̞e]
• Rhymes: -ibe
• Syllabification: de‧ri‧ve

derive

1. inflection of derivar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative