Where does “negativ” come from?
negativ (Romanian) comes from Italian negativo, from Latin negativus, from Latin negō, from Latin nec, from Latin neque, from Proto-Indo-European nekʷe, from Proto-Indo-European ne — not.
Ancestry of “negativ”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Italian | negativo | negative; dismal |
| 2 | Latin | negativus | denied, negative, that which denies; inhibiting |
| 3 | Latin | negō | — |
| 4 | Latin | nec | nor; and not, not; neither |
| 5 | Latin | neque | not; and not, also not |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | nekʷe | and not, neither, nor |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ne | not |