penates

See also: Penates and pénates

English

Etymology

From Latin Penātēs, from penus (“inner part of house”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɪˈnɑːtiːz/, /pɪˈneɪtiːz/

Noun

penates pl (plural only)

1. (Roman mythology) The household deities thought to watch over the houses and storerooms of ancient Rome.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3:

     lest the name thereof being discovered unto their enemies, their Penates and Patronal Gods might be called forth by charms and incantations.

2. (figuratively) Synonym of household deities in other contexts.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 101:

     ...and a china shepherd and shepherdess, clothed in "a green and yellow melancholy," were the penates of the mantel-piece.

Derived terms

• lares and penates

Anagrams

• nepetas, pesante, septane

Latin

Noun

penātēs

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of penās

References

• “penates”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “penates”, in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• “penates”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin