Penates

American  

[puh-ney-teez, -nah-] / pəˈneɪ tiz, -ˈnɑ- /

Or penates

plural noun

Roman Religion.

1. gods who watched over the home or community to which they belonged: originally, two deities of the storeroom.

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penates British  

/ pəˈnɑːtiːz /

plural noun

1. See lares and penates

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Etymology

Origin of Penates

1505–15; < Latin Penātēs, akin to penus stock of provisions

Example Sentences

Every Roman family had a Lar, who was the spirit of an ancestor, and several Penates, gods of the hearth and guardians of the storehouse.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

There were also public Lares and Penates, who did for the city what the others did for the family.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

The most prominent and revered of them all were the Lares and Penates.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Into the trunk went most of her clothes; some of her toilet articles; her half-dozen books; her stationery; all her slender Lares and Penates.

From Out of the Air by Gillmore, Inez Haynes

There was a time when he loved England and would perhaps have contentedly lived and died there, if his Lares and Penates could have been enticed into taking up their abode there.

From Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume I (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Bruce, Wiliam Cabell