pozitiva

One root, and do not cut it. The word ends in -iva, and by this stage of the course you have learned to look for a seam whenever you see one. There is an -iv- suffix in Esperanto - it is unofficial and technical, it is a Reta Vortaro headword, and it lives in words like kreiva and produktiva, marking an active capability. This is not it. Pozitiv- arrived under Rule 15 as a single Latin word with the -iv- already fossilised inside it, exactly like aktiva, relativa, alternativo, motivo, naiva, inkluzivi and kultivi. Cut it and you are left with pozit-, which is not a word in this language. The unofficial affixes article sets out the whole shadow system and where the honest line falls.

Four senses, and they behave differently.

• Affirmative. Pozitiva respondo is a yes.
• Numerical. Pozitiva nombro is greater than zero. The opposite is negativa.
• Medical or technical. La testo estis pozitiva - the thing was found. This is the sense that has spread furthest in the last few years and it is the same in Esperanto as everywhere else.
• Attitudinal. Pozitiva sinteno, a positive outlook. This is the sense English uses most casually and the one where Esperanto has alternatives: optimisma for the outlook, favora for a favourable opinion, konstrua for a constructive suggestion. A writer who reaches for pozitiva every time will sound as though they are translating from English.

The antonym. Negativa is the ordinary word, borrowed the same way, with its own fossilised Latin suffix and no page here yet - it has not earned a rank slot in the first 3,000. Malpozitiva is grammatical and you will occasionally see it, but negativa is what you will read, and in mathematics nenegativa is the standard term for non-negative.

Derived forms. Pozitive is the adverb, pozitiveco the quality, and pozitivigi is to make something positive. Pozitivismo is the philosophical movement, built with the -ism- you met on kristanismo a few ranks back, and it is the one place the word takes an Esperanto suffix rather than wearing a Latin one.