Passive character, passive person, passive outlook, passive account, passive income. What is "passive"? What does passive mean? Like this? Is it the same definition or not? Maybe these are homonymous words? By the way, what does the word "passive" mean? Let's figure it out step by step.
Features of the word
The adjective itself originates from the Proto-Indo-European language from pei - "to hurt", "to hurt". From there, it passed into Latin and transformed into pati - “endure”, “endure”, “suffer”, “torment” - and, finally, the Latin passivus appeared - “receptive”, “passive”, “passive”.
Stress is placed on the second syllable: passive.
The radical part of the Slavophiles, advocating the replacement of foreign words, offers the word "inactive" as an alternative. The direct meaning is devoid of an active principle. Thus, the answer to the question of what "passive" means lies in the definition of "submissively." Passively - obediently submitting to circumstances.
Accounting
The concepts of passive and active accounts are used in accounting very widely along with suchdefinitions such as debit and credit (they are also sometimes referred to as assets and liabilities). It is difficult to imagine the work of any organization without them.
But what does an active and passive account mean?
In simple terms, an active account is necessary to record the state, monitor the movement of the company's funds, and a passive one is an accounting of sources of capital formation (including working capital) and debt obligations of the company (employee benefits, long-term and short-term loans).
About the character of a person
The best illustration of the definition of the word "passive" in Russian literature - Ilya Ilyich Oblomov. The hero who prefers to spend his days on the couch eating fatty foods and dreaming expresses the very essence of the word. Oblomov represents the pinnacle of inactivity and lack of initiative, when Stolz, antonymous to him, embodies the pinnacle of practicality and lively activity, which allows him to be described with the antonymous word for “passive” - “active”.
What does it mean to live passively? It means to live with the flow of the river, obeying all circumstances and not trying to resist them. This way of life is often attributed to women in a patriarchal culture as an image worthy of every kind of imitation. In today's culture, people of either gender who lead this lifestyle tend to be ridiculed.
Another curious phrase is also related to the character of a person. The one who seems to be helping, acts in accordance with his ideals, but withthis constantly expresses his dissatisfaction, surreptitiously accuses others of not meeting generally accepted moral categories (kindness, justice), or otherwise makes him feel guilty, is called a person showing passive aggression.
In LGBT culture
Among other things, the terms "passive" and "active" are used to denote roles in homosexual couples. One can draw a parallel with the fact that in a patriarchal society a woman is supposed to be a "passive", only shading her husband. At the dawn of the sexual revolution in the mid-twentieth century, it was assumed that homosexual relationships were entered by men who, by some mistake of nature, were characterized by "feminine" behavior. It is now known that homosexuality is not associated with gender stereotypes, but the vocabulary of the time is still used today.
So what does it mean to be passive in a homosexual relationship? In a male homosexual relationship, a "passive" is a partner who plays a leading role in sex. Previously, he was also credited with such qualities of character as humility, love of comfort, but at present the term has been transformed and denotes exclusively sexual addictions.
This is not all the meanings of the word "passive".
