penates en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /pəˈnɑtiz/ (US)
- /pəˈneɪtiz/ (US)
- /pəˈnɑːtiːz/ (UK)
Etymology
From Latin penātēs, from penus (“inner part of house”). Displaced native Old English cōfgod.
Meanings
-
(Roman, plural, plural-only) The household deities thought to watch over the houses and storerooms of ancient Rome.
lest the name thereof being discovered unto their enemies, their Penates and Patronal Gods might be called forth by charms and incantations.
1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3:
-
(figuratively, plural, plural-only) Synonym of household deities in other contexts.
...and a china shepherd and shepherdess, clothed in "a green and yellow melancholy," were the penates of the mantel-piece.
1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 101: