concomitant

English

WOTD – 12 April 2008

Etymology

First attested 1607; from Middle French concomitant, from Latin concomitāns, the present participle of concomitor (“I accompany”), from con- (“together”) + comitor (“I accompany”), from comes (“companion”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kənˈkɒmɪtənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kənˈkɑːmətənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

concomitant (not comparable)

Examples (grammar)
"While they were talking, […] "

1. Accompanying; conjoining; attending; concurrent. [from early 17th c.]

   Synonyms: accompanying, adjoining, attendant, incidental

   • 1689, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding‎^[1]:

     It has therefore pleased our wise Creator to annex to several objects, and to the ideas which we receive from them, as also to several of our thoughts, a concomitant pleasure, […]

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:

     It is a difficulty to know what view one should adopt; she may drag on for two whole years; in that time her good fortune, with all its concomitant advantages, would be insured to her connexions, after which her death would be the most interesting thing possible, and make an astounding impression.

   • 1939 June, “What the Railways are Doing: London Transport Air Raid Precautions”, in Railway Magazine, page 462:

     The visitors saw the measures taken immediately before, during, and after an "air raid", which included a gas and high-explosive bomb attack. The concomitant noise "effects" sounded grimly realistic.

   • 1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock: Bantam Books, page 41:

     The new technology on which super-industrialism is based, much of it blue-printed in American research laboratories, brings with it an inevitable acceleration of change in society and a concomitant speed-up of the pace of individual life as well.

   • 2005, Alpha Chiang, Kevin Wainwright, Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill International, page 501:

     With technological improvement, therefore, it will become possible, in a succession of steady states, to have a larger and larger amount of capital equipment available to each representative worker in the economy, with a concomitant rise in productivity.

2. (grammar) Of or relating to the grammatical aspect which expresses that a secondary action is occurring simultaneously to the primary action of the statement.

Translations

following as a consequence

• Bulgarian: съпътстващ (bg) (sǎpǎtstvašt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 併發的／并发的 (zh) (bìngfā de)

• Czech: doprovodný m
• Finnish: johtuva (fi), seuraava (fi)
• French: concomitant (fr)
• German: damit einhergehend
• Greek: συνακόλουθος (el) m (synakólouthos)
• Hindi: आनुषंगिक (hi) (ānuṣaṅgik), सहगामी (hi) (sahgāmī), सहवर्ती (hi) (sahvartī)
• Italian: concomitante (it)
• Korean: 수반(隨伴)되는 (subandoeneun)
• Polish: współistniejący m
• Russian: сопу́тствующий (ru) (sopútstvujuščij)
• Spanish: concomitante (es)

Noun

concomitant (plural concomitants)

1. Something happening or existing at the same time.

   Synonyms: accompaniment, co-occurrence

   • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter X, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 121:

     The reflection, that but the next day was to transport her far from London, had, in chasing distrust, with its natural concomitants, restraint and reserve, given a sweet and placid composure to her demeanour.

   • 1900, Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, page 301:

     It is also instructive to consider the relation of these dreams to anxiety dreams. In the dreams we have been discussing, a repressed wish has found a means of evading censorship—and the distortion which censorship involves. The invariable concomitant is that painful feelings are experienced in the dream.

   • 1963 May, “Metamorphosis at Swindon Works”, in Modern Railways, page 337:

     A major concomitant of the advent of diesel traction has been a vast increase in the amount of electrical equipment needing overhaul.

   • 1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam Books, page 93:

     The declining commitment to place is thus related not to mobility per se, but to a concomitant of mobility- the shorter duration of place relationships.

2. (algebra) An invariant homogeneous polynomial in the coefficients of a form, a covariant variable, and a contravariant variable.

Synonyms

• divariant

Related terms

• concomitance
• concomitantly
• concomitate

References

• “concomitant”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin concomitantem, the present participle of Latin concomitor (“to accompany”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.kɔ.mi.tɑ̃/

Adjective

concomitant (feminine concomitante, masculine plural concomitants, feminine plural concomitantes)

1. concomitant

Further reading

• “concomitant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.