As an adjective, it means expressing 'no', being harmful or bad, or having a value less than zero. As a noun, it can mean a photographic image where light and dark are reversed, or a result showing the absence of something (like in a medical test).
From Latin 'negativus' meaning 'that which denies', from 'negare' meaning 'to deny'. It entered English through Late Latin and French grammatical terms.
In math, a negative number isn’t 'bad'; it just means 'in the opposite direction' on the number line. The same idea appears in electricity (negative charge) and medical tests (a 'negative' test can be the best news you get all year).
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