消极

The Chinese word 消极 (xiāojí) is composed of two characters: 消 (xiāo) and 极 (jí). The character 消 originally meant "to melt" or "to disappear", and later extended to mean "to consume" or "to reduce". The character 极 originally meant "the highest point" or "the extreme", and later extended to mean "very" or "extremely". When combined, the two characters 消极 literally mean "to reduce to the extreme" or "to reach the lowest point". In modern Chinese, 消极 is used as an adjective to describe something that is negative, pessimistic, or lacking in enthusiasm. It can also be used as a verb to mean "to be negative" or "to be pessimistic".The opposite of 消极 is 积极 (jījí), which means "positive", "optimistic", or "enthusiastic".