Definitive Jest

Entry: dasein (n.)

In context: "'Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents of Quebec are essentially cultists, locating both there political raison d'etre and their philosophical dasein within the North American sociohistorical interval of intensive special interest diffraction that preceded - nay, one might daresay stood in integral causal relation with respect to - the nearly simultaneous inaugurations of O.N.A.N.ite governance, continental Interdependence, and the commercial subsidization of a lunar O.N.A.N. calendar.

Definition: I've been looking forward to this one.

In Hegelian philosophy: existence, determinate being.
 


Other: I've only read a few of Hegel and Heidegger's work, so I'm not going to be able to do this anything like justice.  If you're interested in the area and would like to contribute, I'd be happy to add your thoughts.

Here, though, are a few interesting things:

From the etymology:  German, < da there + sein being, a favourite word of Goethe's.

Here is something from Wikipedia: a German word which literally means being there (German: da - there; sein - being) often translated in English with the word existence. It is a fundamental concept in the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger particularly in his magnum opus Being and Time. Heidegger uses the expression dasein to refer to the experience of being that is peculiar to human beings. Thus it is a form of being that is aware of and must confront such issues as personhood, mortality and the dilemma or paradox of living in relationship with other humans while being ultimately alone with oneself.

SNOOT score: 4
 
Page: 1057

Source: Oxford English Dictionary, Wikipedia