Oriental derives from Latin "orientem" meaning the rising sun , the east , part of the sky where the sun rises . "oriri" = to rise . So it is the geographical east of any country or region . It refers literally more to the cultural values and traditions of such regions , they are mostly older civilizations . East derives from austra ,which means towards the sunrise ,the east is literally the direction where the dawn breaks , it is also the geographical east of any country or region. So they both have almost the same meaning , but there are used literally in different ways, east is more for geographical position while oriental reflects more of the cultural aspect of a region .Linguistically it doesn't have any negative meaning !