paramountcy

English

Etymology

From paramount +‎ -cy.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpaɹəmaʊn(t)si/

Noun

paramountcy (countable and uncountable, plural paramountcies)

1. (uncountable) The condition or fact of being paramount; precedence, supremacy; (countable) an instance of this. [from 17th c.]
   • 1902, William James, “Lectures XI, XII, and XIII: Saintliness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 268:

     [W]e saw this permanence to be true of the general paramountcy of the higher insight, even though in the ebbs of emotional excitement meaner motives might temporarily prevail and backsliding might occur.

   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 203:

     Both, they claim, were British spies, sent into Central Asia as part of a grand design for paramountcy there at the expense of Russia, whose influence they aimed to destroy.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 703:

     Portuguese Church authorities often made things more difficult for non-Portuguese European missionaries by insisting on the paramountcy of their own culture and ecclesiastical jurisdiction […]