négatives

Négatives is the plural form of negative in French, and in broader usage it appears in English as a loanword referring to several related concepts. The word describes inversion, absence, or opposition in different fields, most commonly mathematics, photography, and linguistics.

In mathematics, a negative number is a real number strictly less than zero. Negative numbers occupy the left side of the number line and are the additive inverses of their positive counterparts. They influence calculations through their sign: adding a negative is like subtracting a positive, and multiplying or dividing two numbers follows the rule that the product of two negatives is positive, while a negative and a positive yield a negative. Negative values are essential in expressing debt, temperature below freezing, elevation below a reference point, and many other comparative measures.

In photography, a negative is an image produced on light-sensitive material that records light inversely: bright areas appear dark and dark areas appear bright on the negative. Negatives can be film-based (silver halide emulsions on celluloid or acetate) or glass plates. Prints are produced by projecting or contacting the negative onto photosensitive paper and developing it to reveal a positive image. The term remains in use for digitally scanned film negatives as well, where the original inversion is numerical rather than chemical.

In linguistics, negatives refer to grammatical constructions that negate propositions. Negation is expressed by particles, affixes, or word order in many languages, as in not in English or ne … pas in French. Negatives interact with scope, emphasis, and context, and some languages allow multiple negations with nuanced meanings.