derive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English deriven, also diriven,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French deriver (“to flow, pour out; derive, originate”),^[4][5][6] and partly directly borrowed from Latin dērīvō (“to lead or draw off (water)”).^[7][8][9] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century, meaning to draw off or channel water from its source and to flow or stem from something.^[10] The Latin verb, which in Late Latin was also used of deriving one word from another,^[4][11] comes from the phrase dē rīvō (“from the stream”), with dē (“from”) and rīvus (“stream, brook”),^[4][12] from Proto-Indo-European *rei- (“to run, flow”).^[4][13] It is related to rivulet and rival.^[12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To come or descend from a source, to originate: about 1385, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, euery part diryueth from his hool.^[2][12][4] The Middle English verb also meant to hand something down and to draw off or drain.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains that the Latin verb first meant literally to draw off water from a source, then more generally to divert, and figuratively to derive, a metaphor like spring from.^[14] In English the literal sense of conducting water through a channel is recorded from 1483 to 1805,^[6] and the medical sense of drawing off fluids in the 16th–18th centuries;^[6][9] Trench (1859) noted that the figurative uses had quite replaced the literal ones, so that people now derive anything but water from a river.^[15] The sense "to get or obtain from a source" dates from the 1560s,^[4] and "to reach by reasoning, deduce" from about 1500.^[4] Of words, the sense "trace the origin of" is first recorded in 1559 according to Barnhart,^[12] in the 1550s according to Etymonline,^[4] which dates "to arise from a source" to the 1660s.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave first the sense "to turn the course of anything", and then "to deduce from its original".^[16] In chemistry and mathematics it came to mean to produce one substance from another, or to obtain one function from another.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – to descend or originate from a source, in Chaucer.^[2][12]
• 1483 – to conduct water into a channel (obsolete by 1805).^[6]
• c. 1500 – to reach by reasoning.^[4]
• 1559 – to trace the origin of a word.^[12]
• 1560s – to get or obtain from a source.^[4]
• 1660s – to arise or spring from a source.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To get or receive something from a source: She derives great comfort from her garden.^[17][18]
2. To come from a source; to originate: The custom derives from an old harvest festival.^[17][18]
3. To trace the origin or development of something, especially of a word: Scholars derive the name from a Celtic river word.^[17][18]
4. To reach a conclusion by reasoning; to deduce or infer.^[17][18]
5. In chemistry, to produce a compound from another by a reaction.^[17][18]
6. In mathematics, to obtain a function or result by a sequence of logical steps.^[17]
7. (obsolete, 1483–1805) To conduct water or another fluid through a channel from its source.^[6][9][16]

Word family

• derivable
• deriver
• derivate
• misderive
• derivation
• derivative

Related words

• rival
• rivulet

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster