PARAMOUNT, (compounded of two French words, par, i. e. per, and monter, ascendere), signifies in our law the "highest lord of the fee, of lands, tenements, and hereditaments." As there may be a lord mesne where lands are held of an inferior lord, who holds them of a superior under certain services; so this superior lord is lord paramount. Also the king is the chief lord, or lord paramount of all the lands in the kingdom. Co. Lit. 1.