U+8CA0 "負" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character
U+8CA0 "負" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character (hanzi) that also appears in Japanese (as a kanji) and Korean (as a hanja), with the core meaning of "to bear," "to carry," or "to be burdened with," as well as "negative" or "minus" in mathematical and philosophical contexts. This ideograph is composed of the radical for "shell" or "money" (貝) on the bottom, combined with a top element that originally depicted a person turning away, symbolically representing the idea of carrying a debt or a load. In modern usage, it is frequently found in words related to responsibility, such as "責任" (responsibility), or in compounds like "負数" (negative number) and "負荷" (load or burden). As part of the CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) unified block, it shares its shape and meaning across these East Asian scripts, though its pronunciation and specific usage may vary, from Mandarin "fù" to Japanese "fu" or "ou," reflecting its deep cultural and linguistic roots.