I think I'd ditch the adjective and switch the sentence around to a different construction. - Edit 1
Before modification by Legolas at 23/03/2010 05:33:33 PM
Because words like "potential" and "possible" have cognates in Dutch that we wouldn't really consider as fully equivalent to "eventueel". Probably something with "in case of", or something involving "should" ("Bij eventuele verdere vragen kunt u steeds contact opnemen met X" = "In case of any further questions / Should any further questions arise , you can always contact X"
.
The Dutch/German/Swedish/... way is certainly shorter and more efficient, though.
Well, the eytmology is e- "out" + venire "come". So the justification (or, at least, mine) of the English meaning is that the thing will "come out" (or become an "event") one day, even if it takes a long time. What's the Dutch view?
Right, I didn't go quite that far back when I said "etymology" - I was merely thinking about the "event" part. And then I think it's more logical that an adjective derived from that should mean "in the event that", than "future". If you ask me (I may be a tad biased ), the meaning of English "eventual" is much better covered by some word involving cognates of "end", like in Dutch "uiteindelijk" - or indeed English "in the end".
It's a good story regardless.
True, doesn't matter so much if it actually happened or not.
. The Dutch/German/Swedish/... way is certainly shorter and more efficient, though.
Well, the eytmology is e- "out" + venire "come". So the justification (or, at least, mine) of the English meaning is that the thing will "come out" (or become an "event") one day, even if it takes a long time. What's the Dutch view?
Right, I didn't go quite that far back when I said "etymology" - I was merely thinking about the "event" part. And then I think it's more logical that an adjective derived from that should mean "in the event that", than "future". If you ask me (I may be a tad biased
), the meaning of English "eventual" is much better covered by some word involving cognates of "end", like in Dutch "uiteindelijk" - or indeed English "in the end". It's a good story regardless
.True, doesn't matter so much if it actually happened or not.