1505–15; < Latin Penātēs, akin to penus stock of provisions
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
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
The most prominent and revered of them all were the Lares and Penates.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
He was a physician and a naturalist: he seemed rather one of the Penates than of the inmates.
From Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels, Vol. I (of 2) by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
She came to me in the little room, where I kept my books and Penates, and laid her hand upon my shoulder.
From Mr. Marx's Secret by Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
In addition, the penates, figurines of household gods, were put on the dining table during meals and worshipped as protectors of the home.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Her lares and penates range from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee.
From Time Magazine Archive
You will always see in every cubicle, above every bed in a long hut, the girl's own private gallery, the lares and penates which make of her, in her bed at least, an individual.
From The Sword of Deborah First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in France by Jesse, F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson)
Hamersley recognises them as part of the penates of his late host.
From The Lone Ranche by Reid, Mayne
Marcus and I sat on a garden bench and he enthused about Jerusalem: “So unlike Rome, so much more oriental—can it be we are free of our penates here?”
From Voices from the Past by Bartlett, Paul Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
