n. In mathematics, a function which stands in the same relation to the primitive function from which it is derived as any of its linear transforms to a similarly derived transform of its primitive; a function of the coefficients and variables of a given quantic, such that when the quantic is linearly transformed, the same function of the new variables and coefficients is equal to the old function multiplied by some power of the modulus of transformation. Covariants were discovered by Cayley, and so named by Sylvester, 1852.