I was at a loss for words. Surely there was something. I scanned my brain networks up and down searching for the vocabulary. Nothing… damn! There is doubtless an english word representing the exact opposite of “concern”, “issue”, or “problem”. Right?
After a frantic search through the dictionary and thesaurus, I still came up empty-handed. “Non-issue”, and “Non-concern” crossed my mind, but these are not quite right, these just signal a lack of issue or concern—an indifference—not their opposite, positive aspects.
This is uncomfortable. I don’t remember another time when I could conceptualize something so matter-of-fact in my mind and there not being a word to represent it. Seriously, think about it for a second, and I surmise you’ll feel a bit uneasy. Imagine being a human before language. The “caveman grunt” was more likely frustration due to the inability to express a thought rather than an attempt at communication—maybe.
Anyways, the word I’m proposing is “optimance”. Damn spell checker. Ignore. The etymology is as follows: The prefix "optim" comes from the Latin word optimus, which means “best” or “very good”, and the suffice “ance”, meaning "state or condition".
Before publishing this post, I tried it out on the AI chatbot without defining the word up front, and not surprisingly, it was able to infer the meaning. This is how it began its response: “Here’s a concise summary of the major concerns and optimances (positive aspects) in the _______ Privacy Policy (dated January 02, 2025) based on the provided text…”
So now when I go to ask the friendly neighborhood chatbot to peruse a privacy policy and summarize any concerns and _______, I’ll have just the word.
Optimance (noun) 1. A notably positive aspect of someone or something.
With this brewing, it occurred to me "pro" could possibly be a stand-in until musing on it a bit more. First, saying "could you summarize any pros and issues" just doesn't jibe with the tongue like it should; pros and cons go together like peas in a pod. Plus, many things can be disadvantageous or advantageous without it being a cause for concern or "optimance".