derived

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of derive.

   The committee derived its authority from the new charter.

   Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek roots.

   Note

   Here derive's two constructions meet in a single spelling. Used transitively, someone derived something: authority from a charter, or a conclusion from evidence. Used intransitively, a thing derived from a source, meaning it stemmed from it. So the custom derived from a festival and the custom was derived from a festival say nearly the same thing. The first is active with no auxiliary, and the second is passive, built with be.

2. 2
   adjective

   Formed or obtained from another source rather than originating on its own.

   Linguists study how a derived form gains meaning from its base.

   The report relied on derived figures rather than raw measurements.

   Similarsecondary, derivative, calculated

   Oppositeoriginal, primary, raw

   Note

   The adjective sits close to the verb it comes from, and the construction shows which one is at work. In "French is derived from Latin," the from-phrase points back to an origin, so the participle of the verb derive carries the meaning. Before a noun, as in a derived word or a derived figure, it is a plain adjective. It takes no degrees: a thing is derived or it is not.

3. 3
   adjective

   Describing traits unique to the descendant species of a clade and absent from their ancestral forms.

   Birds show many derived characteristics not present in their reptilian ancestors.

   Researchers mapped each derived trait onto the branches of the evolutionary tree.

   Oppositeancestral, primitive

   Note

   A cladist's term with a strictly relative meaning: a trait counts as derived only when set against the ancestral condition of its clade. Such a trait is called an apomorphy, and its opposite is the ancestral, or plesiomorphic, state. In this use the adjective takes no degrees. A character state either is derived or is not, and that separates it from the older 'advanced' meaning.

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