消極的
しょうきょくてき · shoukyokuteki · JLPT N2 · na-adj
passive
消 = cancel, 極 = extreme: cancel out the extremes of action, so passive
消 means cancel or extinguish and 極 means pole or extreme, so together they describe switching off active engagement. The suffix 的 makes it an adjective meaning holding back rather than acting first.
消 — water 氵 + 肖 (phonetic)
消 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the water radical 氵 indicates the meaning, while 肖 (xiào) supplies the sound. It originally described water dwindling or melting away, and from there extended to the modern senses of vanishing, dissolving, and dispelling.
的 — white 白 + ladle 勺
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 白 ('white') gave the meaning of bright or clear, and 勺 supplied the sound. It once meant 'bright' or 'target' (still seen in 目的, 'aim'). In modern Chinese it was borrowed as a grammatical particle marking possession or modification.