lararium

American  

[luh-rair-ee-uhm] / ləˈrɛər i əm /

noun

plural

lararia

1. (in an ancient Roman home) a shrine for the Lares.

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Etymology

Origin of lararium

1700–10; < Late Latin larārium; see Lares, -ary

Example Sentences

In the home they maintained a lararium, a shrine in which the spirits of ancestors were honored.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

Feeling for the door which led to the sleeping-rooms, he saw the gleaming flame of a small lamp, and approaching it saw the lararium in which was a cross instead of lares.

From Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Curtin, Jeremiah

A tolerant Roman, like Alexander Severus, set statues of Apollonius, Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, "and others of that sort," in his lararium; and many today are inclined to make a similar religious combination.

From Some Christian Convictions A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day Thinking by Coffin, Henry Sloane

That little cross of boxwood twigs which she had left reminded him of her,—that cross, which he had placed in the lararium and revered involuntarily as something divine.

From Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Curtin, Jeremiah

"In the lararium, O praefect," replied the soldier without hesitation.

From "Unto Caesar" by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness