Comments
Comment by Scott:
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Are you sure that “concurrent” carries with it a positive connotation? My sense of the word is that it is pretty neutral and simply describes a more or less physical/mechanical situation: two things moving along at more or less the same time. And while it doesn’t necessarily mean that the two things are competing with one another, it can indicate that they are competing with one another. On the other hand, “compete” means kind of the same thing as “Konkurrenz”—striving together/with/against one another.
Comment by ssp:
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I wrote as positive (without the emphasis) which was supposed to be mildly ironic but a second reading suggests that this detail was probably lost in the text.
I think I get the positive impression from the fact that concur is also used to express agreement with someone else. While technically people competing in the same area also agree on something, the focus in that situation seems to be more on crushing the opponent… thus being destructive rather than constructive in an extreme reading.
P.S. You should listen to ‘Turn Into’ on the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album… if only for the opening lyrics.
Comment by Carl:
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English has these same sorts of things. “Manuscript” means “hand” + “writing,” but “handwriting” is a different word on its own account.
Japanese also does similar things, with Old Chinese taking the place of Greek/Latin. Seppuku means “cut stomach” in fake Chinese, but harakiri means “stomach cut” in classically derived Japanese.
