Derivative

How to spell derivative

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce derivative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does derivative mean?

1. adjectiveImitative of the work of others and therefore lacking originality.
2. nounA financial contract whose value is based on an underlying asset such as a stock, currency, or commodity.
3. nounIn calculus, a measure of how a function changes as its input changes; its rate of change.
4. nounA word or substance formed or obtained from an earlier source.

Derivative in a sentence

• adjective

  The critics dismissed the novel as derivative and dull.

• noun

  The bank lost millions trading a complex derivative tied to oil prices.

• noun

  The students learned to calculate the derivative of a simple polynomial.

• noun

  The medicine is a derivative of a natural compound found in tree bark.

• adjective

  Her early paintings were openly derivative of the old masters.

• noun

  Each derivative in the portfolio depends on the value of an underlying share.

Where does derivative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb derivare, which literally meant 'to draw off water', formed from de- meaning 'away from' and rivus meaning 'a stream or brook'. The original image was of channelling water out of a river into a new course, and from that the verb came to mean drawing anything off from a larger source. English took the related noun and adjective in the late 1400s, partly through the Old French derivatif, to describe something obtained or flowing from an earlier origin rather than created fresh. The same rivus root still sits quietly inside 'river' and 'rival', the latter because rivals were originally people sharing the use of the same stream. Knowing that hidden 'riv' (stream) in the middle is a handy anchor for the spelling, since the tricky part for most writers is the unstressed vowels around it, the i after 'der' and the a before 'tive'.

How the word is built

• de- (from, away)
• riv (stream, from Latin rivus 'brook')
• -ative (adjective/noun suffix)