diff --git a/src/arithmetic.jl b/src/arithmetic.jl
index 908a770..d651782 100644
--- a/src/arithmetic.jl
+++ b/src/arithmetic.jl
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Base.:(//)(X::AlgebraElement, a::Number) = AlgebraElement(coeffs(X) .// a, paren
 Base.:div(X::AlgebraElement, a::Number) = AlgebraElement(div.(coeffs(X), a), parent(X))
 
 # ring structure:
-Base.:-(X::AlgebraElement) = neg!(similar(X), X)
+Base.:-(X::AlgebraElement) = MA.operate_to!(similar(X), -, X)
 
 function _preallocate_output(X::AlgebraElement, Y::AlgebraElement, op)
     T = Base._return_type(op, Tuple{eltype(X),eltype(Y)})
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ end
 
 MA.operate!(::typeof(zero), v::SparseVector) = (v .*= 0; v)
 
-function neg!(res::AlgebraElement, X::AlgebraElement)
+function MA.operate_to!(res::AlgebraElement, ::typeof(-), X::AlgebraElement)
     @assert parent(res) === parent(X)
     res.coeffs .= .-coeffs(X)
     return res
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ end
 
 function sub!(res::AlgebraElement, X::AlgebraElement, Y::AlgebraElement)
     @assert parent(res) === parent(X) === parent(Y)
-    neg!(res, Y)
+    MA.operate_to!(res, -, Y)
     add!(res, res, X)
     return res
 end
diff --git a/test/arithmetic.jl b/test/arithmetic.jl
index 902a19c..e7472cb 100644
--- a/test/arithmetic.jl
+++ b/test/arithmetic.jl
@@ -210,14 +210,14 @@
 
         let d = deepcopy(a)
             StarAlgebras.zero!(d)
-            StarAlgebras.neg!(d, a)
+            MA.operate_to!(d, -, a)
 
             d = deepcopy(a)
             @test !iszero(d)
             @test @allocated(StarAlgebras.zero!(d)) == 0
             @test iszero(d)
 
-            @test @allocated(StarAlgebras.neg!(d, a)) == 0
+            @test @allocated(MA.operate_to!(d, -, a)) == 0
             @test d == -a
         end