I first considered leaving Er-eignis untranslated. But doing so requires an explanation that cannot begiven without interpreting Ereignis, and such an interpretation ipso facto requires translating the word. Leaving Ereignis untranslated also leads to other problems concerning the family of words closely relatd to Ereignis such as Ereignung, Eignung, Zueignung, Übereignung, Eigentum, ereignen, zueignen, übereignen, eignen. Accordingly, I translated Ereignis as "enowning"--a word "that approximates the richness of the German word without pretending to replace it" [P. xx].

The English prefix en- in enowning adequately assumes the same function as the German prefix Er- in Ereignis. The English prefix en-, with its varied meanings of "enabling something," "bringing it into a certain condition," and "Carrying thoroughly through," captures the dynamic character of Er- in Ereignis. When enjoined with owning, en- conveys a different meaning of owning, an unpossessive owning with no appropriatable content, as differentiated from an "owning of something."

The rendering of Ereignis as "enowning" has several advantages: unlike terms such as event, appropriation, event of appropriation, the word enowning lends itself readily to hyphenation and thus functions as an approximate rendering of the Er- and eignis of Er-eignis; unlike terms such as event, appropriation, event of appropriation, and befitting, enowning is not tied to a content whose appropriation or fitting would be an "event"; unlike the aforementioned terms, enowning speaks of an "owning" that has nothing in common with hegemonic seizing; and unlike the aforementioned terms, which are hard put to reflect the hermeneutic-phenomenological kinship of Ereignis to words such as Ereignung, Eignung, Zueignung, Übereignung, enowning reflects this kinship and allows for an approximate rendering of the following words: Ereignung with enownment, Eignung with owning, Eigentum with ownhood, Eigenheit with ownness, Zueignung with owning-to, Übereignung with owning-over-to, Eigentümliche with what is of ownhood.

Pp. 32-33

¶ 7:38 PM