Paramount (derived from the
Anglo-French word
paramont, which means
up above, or
par a mont, meaning
up or on top of the mountain) is the highest authority, or that being of the greatest importance. The word was first used as a term of
feudal law, of the
overlord, the
lord paramount, who held his
fief from no superior lord, and was thus opposed to
mesne lord, one who held from a superior. To those who held their fiefs from one who was not a
lord paramount was given the correlative term paravail, (from
par d val, meaning
in the valley). The word was confused by English lawyers with "avail," help, assistance, profit, and applied to the actual working tenant of the land, the lowest
tenant or occupier.