Concomitants

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Associated elements that arise at the same time as something else
2. Circumstances or entities that coexist with a principal occurrence and may have a connection to it
3. Things or conditions that exist or happen simultaneously with another event or situation

Etymology: "Concomitants" is the plural of "concomitant", a noun for things that accompany something else. The root sits in Latin "comes", meaning "companion", which is also the ancestor of English "count" in its older sense of a nobleman attending a ruler. Latin speakers combined "con-" ("together") with "comitari", "to accompany", to make "concomitari", and its present participle "concomitans" gave the English word its shape. The word reached English through Middle French "concomitant" and was first recorded in 1607. Its path is a straightforward borrowing, so the interest lies less in any surprising twist than in the image packed inside it: whatever travels alongside a main thing is literally going along with it, the way a companion walks beside a traveller.

Synonyms: accompaniments, associates