DERIVATION, n. 1.  The act of deriving, drawing or receiving from a source; as the derivation of an estate from ancestors, or of profits from capital, or of truth or facts from antiquity.2.  In grammar, the drawing or tracing of a word from its root or original; as, derivation is from the L. Derivo, and the latter from rivus, a stream.3.  A drawing from, or turning aside from, a natural course or channel; as the derivation of water from its channel by lateral drains.4.  A drawing of humors from one part of the body to another; as the derivation of humors from the eye, by a blister on the neck.5.  The thing derived or deduced. 
 
 |