Back when I was in high school, the usage of the word "derive" to mean "take the derivative of" was really widespread. It always bothered me because I felt that the proper verb should be "differentiate." I wondering if this use of "derive" is acceptable or not. Has anyone else heard the word "derive" used in this way?
Can the word "derive" be used to mean "take the derivative of"?
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$\begingroup$
calculus
soft-question
terminology
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0I heard it for the very first time on MSE itself. – 2015-11-15
2 Answers
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I say "not acceptable".
I don't recall the grammatical/linguistic term, but it seems like "derive" in that sense needs a "from" somewhere: "This theorem can be derived from blah blah."
"Differentiate", on the other hand, can be used directly with its object: "let's differentiate $f$" and so on.
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1What about the derived group? – 2015-11-15
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Here is an illuminating xkcd forum thread on the topic. People (myself included) seem to agree that the word 'derive' is incorrect.