Meanings
- Romanpluralplural onlyhuman sciencesThe household deities of ancient Rome, respectively overseeing the family and its house and storerooms.
The particular gods of the household were its lares and penates.
1995, Antony Kamm, The Romans: An Introduction, page 87Synonyms: household deity
- figurativelypluralplural onlyOne's prized possessions, considered as the protectors or symbols of one's household.
I am returned to my own Lares and Penates—to my dogs and cats.
1775, Horace Walpole, letter2 more examples
Dissenters came to South Carolina in the decade 1680-1690, some of them persons of means who might have brought with them their lares and penates.
1949, Anna Wells Rutledge, Artists in the Life of Charleston, page 111“Please understand me now—if it were nothing more than muffled tones and scars on your Aeolus's bellows there, merely some calcified foreign matter, then I would send you packing to rejoin your lares and penates, and not worry one white more about you.”
1995, Thomas Mann, translated by John E. Woods, The Magic Mountain, Vintage, published 1996, page 178
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe household deities of ancient Rome, respectively overseeing the family and its house and storerooms.
Origin
- Latinlares et penates
- Englishlares and penates
A calque of Latin lares et penates. See lar and penates.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
lares and penates. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lares%20and%20penates
“lares and penates.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lares%20and%20penates. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lares and penates,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lares%20and%20penates.
Source: lares and penates on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.