Other forms: derived, derives, deriving
To derive something is to get it from a source. Derive pleasure from gardening, derive a word from Latin, derive a formula from first principles.
The preposition is from, always, and that is most of what a learner needs. The passive is at least as common as the active: the word is derived from Greek, the name derives from a Norse settlement. Note that derive from can be used with no object at all in that sense — the name derives from — which is a neat construction worth copying. The related nouns split by field: a derivation is where something came from, and a derivative is the thing made from it, with the extra critical sense of unoriginal.
1verbderiveTo get something from a particular source.
“She derives most of her income from teaching.”
2verbwordOf a word or name, to come from an earlier form.
“The word derives from an Old Norse verb.”
3verbworkTo work something out from what is already known.
“The formula can be derived in three lines.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
derive is a way of getting from a source.
Latin derivare meant to draw water off from a stream — de-, away, plus rivus, a stream. Every modern sense is still that: something led away from a source, whether the source is a river, a language, or a set of axioms.
Latin
dērīvō — to lead, turn, or draw off (a liquid), draw off, derive
Old French
deriver
Middle English
deriven
English, today
derive
Built from
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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA