Paradessence
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The quality of appealing to and promising to satisfy multiple contradictory desires.
"The paradessence of coffee is stimulation and relaxation. Every successful ad campaign for coffee will promise both of those mutually exclusive states.“ Chas snaps his fingers in front of her face. ”That’s what consumer motivation is about, Ursula. Every product has this paradoxical essence. Two opposing desires that it can promise to satisfy simultaneously. The job of the marketer is to cultivate this schismatic core, this broken soul, at the center of every product.“"
Example
More examples"The paradessence of coffee is stimulation and relaxation. Every successful ad campaign for coffee will promise both of those mutually exclusive states.“ Chas snaps his fingers in front of her face. ”That’s what consumer motivation is about, Ursula. Every product has this paradoxical essence. Two opposing desires that it can promise to satisfy simultaneously. The job of the marketer is to cultivate this schismatic core, this broken soul, at the center of every product.“"
Etymology
Blend of paradox + essence, coined by Alex Shakar in 2001.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.