The plus and minus signs, + and -, are mathematical symbols used to represent the concepts of positive and negative, respectively. In addition, + represents the addition operation, which leads to a sum, while – represents the subtraction, which leads to a difference. Their use has been extended to many other, more or less similar meanings. Plus and minus are Latin terms meaning “more” and “less,” respectively.

At the beginning of the 15th century in Europe, the letters “P” and “M” were commonly used. The symbols (P with overline, p̄, for more (più), i.e., plus and M with overline, m̄, for meno (less), i.e., minus) appear for the first time in Luca Pacioli’s mathematics collection, Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità, first printed and published in Venice in 1494.

The + sign is a simplification of the Latin: et (comparable to the development of ampersand &). – may be derived from a tilde written above ⟨m⟩ when used to indicate a decrease, or it may come from a shorthand version of the letter ⟩m⟩ itself.

In his treatise of 1489, Johannes Widmann indicates the symbols – and + as minus and mer (Modern German mehr; “more” ): “was – ist, das ist minus, und das + ist das mer.” They were not used for tract collection and removal, but they’re used to indicate surplus and deficit; their first use in their modern sense appears in a book by Henricus Grammateus in 1518.

Robert Recorde, the designer of the equal sign, introduced the plus and minus of Great Britain in 1557 in The Whetstone of Witte: “There are two other signs that are often used, the first of which is made in this way + and more: the other is made – and takes up less space. ”

The minus sign, -, has three main uses in mathematics:

Subtraction operator: a binary operator that indicate the subtraction operation as in 5 – 3 = 2. Subtraction is the opposite of addition.

The function whose value for any real or complex argument is the additive inverse of that argument. For example, if x = 3, then −x = −3, but if x = −3, then −x = +3. In the same way − (- x) = x.

Numeric constant prefix. When placed immediately before an unsigned number, the combination names a negative number, the additive opposite the positive number, which would otherwise be called the number. In this usage, ‘−5’ names a number in the same way that a ‘semicircle’ names a geometric figure, with the caveat, that ‘semi’ does not have a separate use as a function name.
In many contexts, it does not matter if the second or third of these uses is intended: −5 is the same number. When it is important to distinguish them, an increased minus sign is sometimes used for negative constants, such as in primary education, the APL, programming language, and some early graphing calculators.

Download Minus Symbol Silhouette PNG vector transparent background images