The minus sign didn’t have any origin since ages. Its origin is also not very clear. Few say minus sign was originated during the hieroglyphic or Alexandria ancestry. It is also known to be used by merchants, in order to detach the tare from the weighing of goods.

The initial use of minus sign was in the German manuscript of algebra, found in the Dresden library in 1481. During a similar period, minus and plus signs were found in Latin manuscript. Johannes Widman was the person who studied both manuscripts. Leizig, in 1489, published his first book (Mercantile Arithmetic) and had mentioned about minus signs. An unknown manuscript has also used the minus sign. It gave inputs for publishing 2 books, during 1518 and 1525.

During the initial period of 17th century, in Italy, the minus sign was used by Cavalieri, Christopher Clavius who was an astronaut and Gloriosi, the Mathematician. In English, the minus sign first appeared in a book named Whetstone of Witte, which was written by Robert Recorde.

The usage of minus sign was very confusing. Earlier in Swiss, Dutch and German books ÷ (presently it is the sign for division) sign was used for minus sign. In few books, in 17th century written by Descartes and Mersenne, 2 dots (..) or at times 3 dots (…) were used for subtraction.