Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

paravail en · ADJ

Etymology

From Old French par aval (“below”), from par (“through”) (Latin per) + aval (“down”), from a- (Latin ad) + val (“a valley”) (Latin vallis). Compare paramount.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) At the bottom; lowest (said of feudal tenants).
    • Of the estate adjoining Cottesford the paravail tenants were members of the family who took their name from that village, and were resident in it, de Cotfelde or[…] 1882, James Charles Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester: History of the present deanery of Bicester, Oxon, page 59:
    • The inferior, or paravail tenants, held their lands from the barons, and the barons, or mesne lords, were the grantees of the king[…] 1929, Radhabinod Pal, The History of the Law of Primogeniture: With Special Reference to India, Ancient and Modern: