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ネガティブ is an adjective that's based on the word "negative" (or maybe a word
from another European language). But when describing a person, does it mean
"negative", as in pessimistic, always complaining, or does it mean "bad" in
general?

Apparently, in the news recently was a case where a school exam had

```

    「学校でもっともネガティブな先生は？」
    
```

and listed one of the teachers in the example answer.

Saying "Who is the worst teacher?" would make sense, but "Who is the most
negative teacher?" doesn't really make sense. Complaining about someone
complaining seems a little odd, though maybe that's just me.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-12T11:20:21.517
6106
2012-07-13T01:58:43.273
91
question
translation
Does ネガティブ mean "negative", or "bad", when describing a person?
As Chocolate said, ネガティブ means “pessimistic” when used to describe someone’s
personality. The same meaning exists also in the English word “negative” (see
[Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/negative#Adjective), sense 2 of
adjective), although the meaning is unclear if someone asks “Who is the most
negative teacher?” (Maybe math teachers are the most negative in some sense :)
)

In the particular news which you are talking about, the high-school teacher
who posed this exam had been talking in a class that some other teacher is
worried too much about entrance exams for colleges and universities, and the
supposed solution to this question was the name of this teacher. The meaning
“pessimistic” matches the description that he is worried too much. (Of course,
I do not know if he is really pessimistic.)

Interestingly, neither
[Daijirin](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%83%8D%E3%82%AC%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%96&stype=1&dtype=0&dname=0ss)
nor
[Daijisen](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%83%8D%E3%82%AC%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%96&stype=1&dtype=0&dname=0na)
lists this meaning. ネガティブ which means “pessimistic” might be a rather new
usage, and phrase ネガティブシンキング (negative thinking) might have entered Japanese
earlier than this meaning of ネガティブ itself, but this is just a speculation.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-12T14:23:35.293
6107
2012-07-13T01:58:43.273
2012-07-13T01:58:43.273
15
15
6106
answer