負

Ideogrammatic compound composed of:

⺈ (or 刀의 변형) — representing a knife or cut, here symbolizing division, obligation, or consequence.

貝 (패) — shell money; symbolizes value, goods, wealth, assets.

Together they originally expressed bearing a burden involving goods or debt — carrying value or obligation upon oneself.

Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字):

「負，荷也。从人，貝聲。」

“負 means ‘to carry, to bear.’ Formed from a person carrying (implicit) and using 貝 as the phonetic.”

Note: early forms vary slightly; the ⺈-shaped component appears in later script forms.

The idea of bearing a financial or physical burden developed into broader meanings: obligation, defeat, and negative value.

Semantic development:

Physical burden:

- to carry on the back; to bear weight (the oldest sense)

Responsibility / obligation:

- to take on duties

- to assume guilt or blame

Debt / liability:

- to owe; to be indebted

- later used in mathematics to express negative value (負數).

Defeat:

- to lose in contests or warfare (opposite of 勝 “to win”).

Mathematical / polarity meaning:

- minus, negative

- negative charge, negative coefficient (esp. Chinese & Japanese: 正/負, yin-yang polarity)

This usage dates back at least to 《九章算術》(The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art), where 正 (+) and 負 (−) were used for positive and negative numbers.

Physical / literal sense:

짐을負하다 (부하다) - 짐을 지다, 짊어지다; to carry a load; to bear a burden

Responsibility / obligation:

責任을負하다 (책임을 부하다) - 책임을 짊어지다; to assume responsibility

義務를負하다 (의무를 부하다) - 의무를 떠맡다; to undertake a duty

Debt / liability:

負債(부채) - 빚, 채무; debt; monetary obligation

負債者(부채자) - 채무자; debtor

Defeat:

敗北하여負하다 (패북하여 부하다) - 경기에서 지다; to lose a match; to be defeated

勝負(승부) - 승리와 패배; victory and defeat; match outcome

Mathematical / scientific usage:

負數 (부수) - 음수; negative number

正負 (정부) - 양과 음, +와; positive and negative

負電荷 (부전하) - 음전하; negative electric charge

These usages appear most often in academic, scientific, legal, and technical Korean.

負擔 (부담) — burden; responsibility

責任負擔 (책임부담) — to shoulder responsibility

負債 (부채) — debt; liability

赤字負債 (적자부채) — deficit debt

勝負 (승부) — match; contest; victory and defeat

敗北負 (패배) — defeat (負 used in some compounds meaning “loss”)

負傷 (부상) — to be injured (lit. “to bear wounds”)

負號 / 負電 (부호 / 부전) — minus sign / negative charge (scientific usage)

Classical citations:

《論語·子路》 (Analects 13:20)

「士不可以不弘毅，任重而道遠。」

“A scholar-gentleman must be broad-minded and resolute, for he carries a heavy responsibility and his Way stretches far ahead.”

《論語·憲問》 (Analects 14:13)

「躬自厚而薄責於人，則遠怨矣。」

“If you are strict with yourself and lenient with others, you will avoid resentment.”

《孟子·梁惠王上》 (Mencius)

「以其求之也若此其急也，民弗之負也。」

“Because he pursued them with such urgency, the people did not burden him with blame” — 負 meaning “to lay blame upon; to charge with responsibility.”

《左傳·僖公三十三年》 (Zuo Zhuan)

「君子不以國敗而自負也。」

“A noble man does not burden himself with self-blame because the state is defeated” — 負 means to bear guilt or responsibility.

《史記·項羽本紀》 (Records of the Grand Historian)

「吾不能舉全國之負。」

“I cannot bear the burden of the whole nation” — 負 means to take on responsibility; to shoulder.

《九章算術·方程》 (Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art)

「正負相消。」

“Positive and negative cancel each other out” — Earliest mathematical use of 正 (+) and 負 (−).

《韓非子·解老》 (Han Feizi: Explaining Laozi)

「以德服人者，中心悅而誠服也；以力服人者，力不勝而心不負也。」

“Those persuaded by virtue are pleased in heart and sincerely submit; those subdued by force submit because strength fails, but their hearts do not accept it” — 負 means “to accept, to yield,” by extension “to internalize responsibility.”

Mathematical tradition:

The use of 負 for negative numbers in Chinese mathematical culture is extremely early.

《九章算術》 (ca. 1st century CE) explicitly uses 正 (+) and 負 (−), making East Asia one of the earliest civilizations to institutionalize signed numbers.

The Korean adoption of mathematical 負 follows the same tradition.