Etymologically
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paramount

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 22:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpæɹəmaʊnt/[1]
  • US: /ˈpæɹəˌmaʊnt/, /ˈpɛɹəˌmaʊnt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman paramont (“above; pre-eminent”), also paramount,[2][3][4][5][6] an adjective use of an adverb meaning "above" in place, order or degree,[2][5][7] formed from par (“by”), from per (“through, by”),[4][8][9] and amont (“up, above”), from a mont (“upward”),[8][4][10] from Latin ad montem (“to the mountain”), the phrase that also gave amount.[11][12][13][14] Etymonline and Skeat compare the Latin phrase per ad montem.[8][14] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the late 12th century,[6] and the OED compares seigneur paramont, recorded in 1339, as the model of the English phrase “lord paramount”.[2] Weekley contrasts the obsolete legal term paravail, from aval (“downhill”).[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person or people, highest in rank, power or jurisdiction: 1530, in St German's Doctor and Student;[2][9] Barnhart dates the word 1531.[16][4] The Oxford Dictionary of English notes that the earliest uses are in the phrases lord paramount and paramount chief.[17]

Semantic evolution

The sense of being superior to all others in influence or importance is first found, according to Barnhart, in Bacon in 1596;[4] the OED records the construction with to over 1625–1896, now obsolete.[2] The modern sense, of supreme or overriding importance, mostly used after a verb ("safety is paramount"), dates from 1654.[2] As a noun the word meant an overlord or lord paramount from 1616,[2][9] and in South Africa it is still used for a paramount chief, a sense recorded from 1844.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "superiour; having the highest jurisdiction".[18] A verb, to rise to the highest position, is recorded only in 1699.[2]

Timeline

  • 1530 – of a person or nation, supreme in rank or power.[2][9]
  • 1579 – lord paramount, an overlord.[2]
  • 1596 – superior to all others in importance, in Bacon.[4]
  • 1616 – noun, an overlord.[2][9]
  • 1647 – a woman in supreme authority.[2]
  • 1654 – of supreme or overriding importance.[2]
  • 1844 – a chief of the highest rank in southern Africa.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. More important than anything else; supreme: For the pilots, safety is paramount.
  2. Highest in rank, power or authority: the paramount ruler of the region.

Noun

  1. (rare) A supreme ruler; an overlord.

Word family

  • paramountcy
  • paramountly

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  17. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.