218. For your collection of incomprehensible uses of the word "existential."

-->

Indeed, analysts said, the British Parliament's rebuff of Mr. Cameron, by rejecting his call for a response to the [gas] attacks, ended a period of foreign policy leadership by Europe's two defense powers, Britain and France.  It also provoked a kind of existential crisis, particularly for Britain, which prides itself on its "special relationship" with Washington.

— New York Times, September 5, 2013, page A8.