Peerage of France - The Words "pair" and "pairie"

The Words "pair" and "pairie"

The French word pairie is equivalent to the English "peerage". The individual title, pair in French and "peer" in English, derives from the Latin par, "equal"; it signifies those noblemen and prelates considered to be equal to the monarch in honor (even though they be his vassals), and it considers the monarch thus to be primus inter pares, or "first among equals".

The main uses of the word refer to two historical traditions in the French kingdom, before and after the First French Empire of Napoleon I. The word also exists to describe an institution in the Crusader states.

Some etymologists posit that the French (and English) word baron, taken from the Latin baro, also derives from the Latin par. Such a derivation would fit the early sense of "baron", as used for the whole peerage and not simply as a noble rank below the comital.