raison d'être

See also: raison d'etre

English

Alternative forms

• raison d'etre

Etymology

Borrowed from French raison d’être (literally “reason to be”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɹeɪzɒ̃ ˈdɛtɹə/, /ˌɹɛzɒ̃ ˈdɛtɹə/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

raison d'être (plural raisons d'être or raison d'être or raison d'êtres)

1. Reason for being. The claimed reason for the existence of something or someone; the sole or ultimate purpose of something or someone.

   Surfing became his raison d’être.

   • 1966, Maurice Godelier, Rationality and irrationality in economics, London, published by Francois Maspero, pg. 317 (quoted in Michael W. Coy, "Tugen Monopoly: Capitalism and Conflict in the Mountains of Kenya," Anthropology & Humanism Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1988, pg. 41, Full article - .pdf):

     These raison d'etre and this evolution are not merely the achievement of men's conscious activity but are the unintentional results of their social activity.

   • 1968, Joan Didion, “Notes from a Native Daughter”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:

     It [Sacramento] is a town in which defense industry and its absentee owners are suddenly the most important facts; a town which has never had more people or more money, but has lost its raison d'être.

   • 1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam Books, pg. 174:

     One after another, styles supplant one another. The most enduring twentieth-century school, Abstract Expressionism, held sway for at most twenty years, from 1940 to 1960, then to be followed by a wild succession- "Pop" lasting perhaps five years, "Op" managing to grip the public's attention for two or three years, then the emergence, approximately enough, of 'Kinetic Art' whose very raison d’être is transience.

   • 2003, Seta Fumihiko, Kim Chang-Gi, Lai Shen-Chiang and Onishi Takashi, Abstract for "A Study on the Transition of National Development Strategies in Korea, Taiwan and Japan, Characterized by Developmentalism" (「開発主義に特徴付けられた 日本・台湾・韓国の国土開発戦略の変遷についての一考察」), full paper is pp. 52-61 of "Proceedings", International Symposium on City Planning 2003, The City Planning Institute of Japan, Sapporo, Japan, Abstract:

     National development plans and programs are in particular under harsh discussions and criticism including these raison d'etre in some countries, for these plans and programs have supported construction of rather inefficient infrastructure in less-development area.

   • 2007, Chambi Chachage, "Bringing African Studies Back to Africa: Beyond the ‘African-Africanist’ Divides," paper prepared for the 2nd AEGIS Conference on African Studies (ECAS) at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands, 11-14th July, 2007 (Abstract, Full paper - .doc):

     With hindsight knowledge, it is interesting to note that these three raison d’etre and their ramifications were situated in a broader context of contestations over the whole enterprise of knowledge production and consumption.

   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Bournemouth (circa 1880)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:

     Of course, closure of the West station took away the hotel's raison d'être. In May 2012, the local newspaper reported that this historic hotel, by then rated the town's worst (exemplified by its final review: "Please avoid at all costs"), was to be converted into 31 first-time-buyer one-bedroom flats.

Usage notes

• As this is a foreign phrase, it is usually written in italics. However, some style guides such as that of the Chicago Manual of Style and The Economist assert that foreign words and phrases which have become familiar to English readers should not be italicized.

Translations

reason for being

• Arabic: سَبَب اَلْوُجُود m (sabab al-wujūd)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 存在的理由 (cúnzài de lǐyóu)

• Czech: smysl existence, příčina bytí, raison d'être, smysl bytí
• Dutch: raison d’être f
• Finnish: olemassaolon syy, syy olla olemassa, tarkoitus (fi)
• French: raison d’être (fr) f
• German: Daseinsberechtigung (de) f; Daseinszweck (de) m; Existenzberechtigung (de) f; Lebensbestimmung f; Lebenszweck (de) m; Lebensinhalt (de) m
• Hungarian: létindok, létok
• Italian: ragione d'esistere
• Japanese: 存在理由 (sonzai riyū)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 존재이유 (jonjaeiyu)
• Persian: علت وجودی (fa) ('ellat-e vojudi)
• Portuguese: raison d'être (pt) f
• Romanian: rațiune de a fi f
• Russian: смысл существова́ния m (smysl suščestvovánija)
• Slovene: raison d’être m
• Spanish: razón de ser f
• Swedish: existensberättigande (sv)
• Tagalog: balungkaling
• Turkish: varoluş/var olma nedeni/sebebi (tr)

See also

• be-all and end-all
• my everything
• raison d'État
• ikigai

Anagrams

• noise trader, risedronate

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French raison d’être.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɛˌzɔnˈdɛːtrə/

Noun

raison d'être f (uncountable)

1. raison d'être

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛ.zɔ̃ d‿ɛtʁ/ ~ /ʁe.zɔ̃ d‿ɛtʁ/

• Audio (FR):

  (file)

Noun

raison d’être f (plural raisons d’être)

1. raison d'être

Anagrams

• détrônerais

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Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French raison d’être.

Noun

raison d'être f (plural raisons d'être)

1. raison d'être (reason for existence)