éloignement (ETEM) remoteness, remove (BTJS)

NT: Remoteness, Remove (Entferntheit, a category), 103, 105-106, 108. See also De-distancing; Fatness; Nearness (BTJS)

2. ‘Ent-fernung und Ausrichtung.’ The nouns ‘Entfernung’ and ‘Entfernheit’ can usually be translated by ‘removing’, ‘removal’, ‘remoteness’, or even ‘distance’. In this passage, however, Heidegger is calling attention to the fact that these words are derived from the stem ‘fern-’ (‘far’ or ‘distant’) and the privative prefix ‘ent-’. Usually this prefix would be construed as merely intensifying the notion of separation or distance expressed in the ‘fern-’; but Heidegger chooses to construe it as more strictly privative, so that the verb ‘entfernen’ will be taken to mean abolishing a distance or farness rather than enhancing it. It is as if by the very act of recognizing the ‘remoteness’ of something, we have in a sense brought it closer and made it less ‘remote’. (BTMR)