penates

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

Etymology

From penus (“food provisions stored inside”) +‎ -ās. Originally an adjective chiefly used in the phrase dī penātēs "gods of the home". Compare penetrālia.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /peˈnaː.teːs/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /peˈna.tes/,

Noun

penātēs m pl (genitive penātium); third declension

1. Roman guardian deities of the household
2. (metonymically) dwelling, home, hearth
3. the cells of bees

   Synonym: favī

4. a temple

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem), plural only.

Descendants

• English: penates
• French: pénates
• German: Penaten

References

• penates in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “penates”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• penates in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung