- negative (adj.)
- c.1400, from O.Fr. negatif (fem. negative), 13c., from L. negativus, from negare (see deny). The electricity sense is from 1799. The noun is c.1380 in the sense "a prohibition;" in the photographic sense first recorded 1853. Negativism is 1824 as "the policy of opposition;" in a psychological sense, it is attested from 1892.
"Negative Capability, that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason." [John Keats, letter, Dec. 21, 1817]