P A R 
of another lord ; in refpeft whereof the former lord is 
called lord mefne, and the latter lord paramount. All 
honours, which have manors under them, have the lord 
paramount. But even the term lord paramount is only 
comparative; for, as one may be great, compared to a 
lei's ; and little, being compared with a greater; fo none 
truly feems to be lord paramount but the king, who is 
patron paramount to all the benefices in England. 
PAR'AMOUR, f. [par and amour, F r. “ Par amour, 
I loved her.” Chaucer, C. T. ver. 1157. This is an old 
exprefiion. See Froiflarf, c. 196. “ II alma adonc par 
amours , et depuis efpoufa, madame Yfabelle de Juillers." 
And Boccace, Decam. x. 7. Per amore amiate. From 
hence paramour, or paramours, in one word, was ufed 
vulgarly to lignify love. Tyrwhiit .—Thefe are the quota¬ 
tions of Mr. Todd in his edition of Johnfon’s Diftionary. 
But our Etymological Gleaner remarks, that the ex- 
preffion in Chaucer, although it appears very pretty, is 
by no means correft French. “Je 1 ’aimai par amour," 
without any adjeftive, would have been pleonaftic ; but 
n Je 1 ’aimai d'amour pur , de pur amour," would have 
been good French. Let us then fuppofe that pur amour 
may have been corrupted into paramour; or (as the words 
are not explained at the head of the article) that par¬ 
amour may lignify, “my equal in love;" par-in-amore, 
Ita!.] A lover or wooer.—She doted upon their paramours. 
Ezeh. xxiii. 20. 
A lovely bevy of fair ladies fat. 
Courted of many a jolly paramour , Spenfer , 
A miftrefs s 
Shall I believe 
That unfubftantial death is amorous, 
And that the lean abhorred monfter keeps 
Thee here in dark to be his paramour? Shahefpearo, 
A rival s 
And ever, when he came in companie 
Where Calidore was prefent, he would loure 
And byte his lip, and even for jealoufie 
Was readie oft his owne hart to devoure. 
Impatient of any paramours. Spenfer. 
PAR A M OUSI'R, or Poromashir, the fecond of the 
Kurile or Kurilfkoi iflands; between which and Shoomtfhu 
the (trait is but two verlts broad. It extends from north- 
eaft to fouth-weft, and is twice as large as Shoomtfnu, 
and, according to Cape. Cook, is the largeft of the 
Kuriles under the dominion of Ruflia. The land is very 
high; and, when vifited by Cook’s navigators, in his 
Third Voyage, Oft. 13, 1779, it was entirely covered 
with fnow. It is richly furnifhed with roots and minerals, 
but deftitute of wood. Here is no fcarcity of red foxes, 
wolves, and all kind of mice, Mr. King places the fouth 
end of this ifland in lat. 49. 58. N. and the north end in 
lat. 50. 46. Ion. 156.14. E. 
• PARAMUT'TY, a town of Hindooftan, in the Car¬ 
natic : ten miles fouth-weft of Coveriporum. 
PA'RAN, [Heb. beauty.] A traft in Arabia the Stony, 
between the fouth of Canaan and the eaftern gulf of the 
Red Sea ; or rather it extended, when taken at large, as 
far as Sinai. Deut. xxxiii. 2. Hab. iii. 3. It is faid, that 
part of it next Sinai abounded with bufnes ; but in the 
main, it was, and full is, a frightful defert. As for the 
lioufes, they were generally holes dug in the earth; but 
there was a city called Paran in it, whence Hadad took 
his guides toconduft him to Egypt. 1 Kings, xi. 18. Dr. 
Shaw thinks its extent from Kadefh-barnea on the north, 
to Sinai, was about no miles; but it feems to have ex¬ 
tended to the north-eaft of Kadefh, as David lurked in it 
when he was near Maon and fouth Carmel, (j Sam. xxv. 
2.) and perhaps it was the inhabitants of this part of it 
that Chedorlaomer ravaged before he attacked the Sodo¬ 
mites, (Gen. xiv. 6.) In the wildernefs. of Paran, pro¬ 
bably to the fouth-weft of Beerfheba, Ifhmael and his. 
mother Hagar took up their refxdence, (Gen, xxi, ai.) 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1253. 
P A R 417 
and hence the Ifhmaelites difperfed themfelves into the 
regions about. There feems to have been another place 
called Paran on the eaft of Jordan. Deut. i. 1. 
PARA'NA, a town on the weft coaft of the ifland of 
Samar. Lat. 11.54. N. Ion. 124.48. W. 
PARA'NA, a town of Brafil, on the coaft of the ifland 
of Marajo. Lat. o. 12. S. Ion. 51. 3 6. W. 
PARA'NA, the longeft and moft confiderable ftream 
of the Rio de la Plata, which rifes in the grand mineral 
mountains of Brafil, in 19° fouth lat. and bending fouth 
then weft till it receives the Iha Parana, after which it 
bends fouth-weft till it is joined by the Paraguay; while 
the conjunft rivers are Kill called Parana by the natives, 
and Rio de la Plata by the Spaniards. Yet the length of 
the Paraguay, according to tne map of La Crux, does not 
yield above half a degree to that of the Parana; and the 
ftraightnefs of its courfe gives it the appearance of the 
principal river. The grand cataraft of the Parana is in 
lat, 24°, not far from the ruined town of Cuayra"; but is 
rather a feries of rapids, for a fpace of 12 leagues, amid ft 
rocks of tremendous and fmgular forms. Dobrizhoffer 
aflerts that the Parana is the chief ftream, which receives 
the Paraguay and Uraguay, The inundations are chiefly 
in December and January, rifing about five or fix yards 
above the iflets. This noble river is ftudded with nu¬ 
merous iflands; and Spanifii veflels navigate to the town 
of Afiumption, about 400 leagues from the fea. On the 
(bores are often found geods, inclofing cryftals ; but the 
natural hiftory of the Parana is almoft as obfeure as that 
of the true Maranon. The breadth of the eftuary is fuch, 
that the land cannot he difeovered from a drip in the mid¬ 
dle of the ftream, Pinkerton. 
PAR ANAGU'A, a river of Brafil, which runs into the 
Atlantic in lat. 25. 30. $, 
PARANAME'RIN, a river of Brafil, which runs into 
the Atlantic in lat. 3. 50. 5 . Ion. 42.46. W. 
PARANAPANE'MA, a river of Paraguay, which runs 
into the Parana. 
PARANE'TE, f. In the ancient mufic, was a name 
fometimes ufed to fignify the next note or chord to the 
nete, or laft note ct a tetrachord. Hence it might be 
called the penultimate chord. It was othenvife, and 
more properly, called the lichanos, or index. 
PARANQMA'SIA, f. A figure that occurs when two 
words, very near in found, but different in fenfe, refpeft: 
each other in the fame fentence. This is ufuaily called 
a pun. 
PARANOQ', a river of Malacca, which runs into the 
fea in lat, 4. 40. N. Ion. 103 25. E. 
PARAN'TES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Landes: thirty-three miles north of Tartas. 
PAR'ANYMPH, f. [Greek.] Among the ancients, 
the perfon who waited on the bridegroom, and direfted 
the nuptial folemnities; called alfo pronubus, and aujpex, 
becaufe the ceremony began with taking aufpicia.—As 
the paranymph only officiated on the bridegroom ; on the 
part of the bride a woman officiated, who was called 
pronuba. The Jews had likewife a kind of paranymphs, 
which the Talmud and rabbins call Q‘CTi£ ? !£!, Jbhufc/iebhn, 
q. d. “ companions of the fpoufe.” Chambers.-— Contrary 
to the above, and other authorities of great refpeftability, 
Dr. Johnfon defines paranymph, a brideman; one who 
leads the bride to her marriage s 
The Timnian bride 
Had not fo foon preferr’d 
Thy paranymph, worthlefs to thee compar’d, 
Succefibr in thy bed. Milton's S. A. 
One who countenances or fupports another.—Sin hath 
got a paranymph and a folicitor, a warrant and an ad¬ 
vocate. Bp. b l ay lor's Worthy Communicant. 
PAR'APEGM, f. [from the Gr. Traces, with, and 
Wfiyrjp.i, to prove.] A brazen table fixed to a pillar, 
on which laws and proclamations were anciently en¬ 
graved. Alfo a table fet up publicly, containing an 
5 O account 
