Both Uses of
derive
in
Gulliver's Travels
- Lap, in the old obsolete language, signifies high; and untuh, a governor; from which they say, by corruption, was derived Laputa, from Lapuntuh.†
Chpt 3 *
- I could plainly discover whence one family derives a long chin; why a second has abounded with knaves for two generations, and fools for two more; why a third happened to be crack-brained, and a fourth to be sharpers; whence it came, what Polydore Virgil says of a certain great house, Nec vir fortis, nec foemina casta; how cruelty, falsehood, and cowardice, grew to be characteristics by which certain families are distinguished as much as by their coats of arms; who first brought theā¦†
Chpt 3
Definition:
-
(derive) to get something from something else
(If the context doesn't otherwise indicate where something came from, it is generally from reasoning--especially deductive reasoning.)