lares and penates

A calque of Latin lares et penates. See lar and penates.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌlɛəɹiːz ənd pɪˈnɑːtiːz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌlɛɹiz ənd pɪˈnɑtiz/

lares and penates pl (plural only)

1. (Roman mythology) The household deities of ancient Rome, respectively overseeing the family and its house and storerooms.
   • 1995;, Antony Kamm, The Romans: An Introduction, p. 87:

     The particular gods of the household were its lares and penates.

2. (figuratively) One's prized possessions, considered as the protectors or symbols of one's household.
   • 1775, Horace Walpole, letter:

     I am returned to my own Lares and Penates—to my dogs and cats.

   • 1949, Anna Wells Rutledge, Artists in the Life of Charleston, p. 111:

     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.

   • 1995, John E. Woods, translating Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, Vintage 1996, p. 178:

     “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.”

• (household deities): See household deity