penates
nounUK /pəˈnɑːtiːz/ · US /pəˈnɑtiz/
Etymology From Latin penātēs, from penus (“inner part of house”). Displaced native Old English cōfgod.
1
Human sciences, Mysticism, Mythology, Philosophy, Sciences Roman 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:
2
Figuratively 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:
- Derived terms
- lares and penates