/ˈlɛəriːz/, lars /lɑːz/. Also 1600s larre.larn.
/lɑː//ˈlɛəriːz/, lars /lɑːz/. Also 1600s larre. 1. Roman Mythology † c. A sprite, hobgoblin. Obsolete.
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a. plural. (Frequently with capital initial.) The tutelary deities of a house; household gods; hence, the home. Often coupled with penates.
b. singular. A household or ancestral deity; also transferred and figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > classical deity > [noun] > household god(s)
penatesa1522
house god1540
household god1564
lar1586
lares and penates1616
1586 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. I. 502 The Ancients had a priuate and houshold God, whome they called the God Lar, which we may translate into our language, the God of the Harth.
1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. viii. ix. 287 O yee Lares and domestical gods.
1645 J. Milton On Christ's Nativity: Hymn xxi, in Poems 10 In consecrated Earth, And on the holy Hearth, The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint.
1647 R. Stapleton tr. Juvenal Sixteen Satyrs 278 Build houses; joyne to ours anothers lares; Sleepe safe, confiding in our neighbours cares.
1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. M4v To Thee, thy Lady, younglings, and as farre As to thy Genius and thy Larre.
1742 A. Pope New Dunciad 358 So shall each youth..keep his Lares, tho' his house be sold.
1775 H. Walpole Lett. (1857) VI. 270 I am returned to my own Lares and Penates—to my dogs and cats.
1832 L. Hunt Poems 239 So shall no disease or jar Hurt thy house, or chill thy Lar.
1889 J. R. Lowell Oracle of Goldfishes in Last Poems (1895) 14 You were my wonders, you my Lars, In darkling days my sun and stars.
1889 Athenæum 20 July 88/3 Thomas Pitt..through his sons and daughters, the great lar of not fewer than five families in the English peerage.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > fairy or elf > [noun] > imp, goblin, or hobgoblin
thursec725
puckOE
puckleOE
goblina1350
hurlewaynes kin1399
Hoba1500
bogle?1507
chimera?1521
hobgoblin1530
chyppynutie?1553
bearbug1560
boggard1570
bugbear?c1570
empusa1572
puckerelc1580
puck bug1582
imp1584
urchin1584
fear-babea1586
hob-thrush1590
hodge-poker1598
lar1598
poker1598
bogle-bo1603
mormo1605
foliot1621
mormolukee1624
buggle-boo1625
pug1631
black man1656
feind1659
Tom Poker1673
duende1691
boodie?a1700
worricow1711
bolly1724
Tom Po1744
fleying1811
pooka1824
booger1827
alp1828
boll1847
bogy1857
beastie1867
boogie1880
shag boy1882
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Mazzaruolo, a sprite..a hodgpoker, a lar in the chimney.
2. Zoology. The white-handed gibbon of Burma, Hylobates lar.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > order Primates > suborder Anthropoidea (higher primates) > [noun] > group Catarrhinae (Old World monkey) > member of superfamily Hominoidea (apes and humans) > family Hylobatidae > genus Hylobates > Hylobates lar (gibbon)
gibbon1774
lar1819
silvery gibbon1824
wow-wow1824
silver gibbon1893
1819 A. Rees Cycl. XX. (at cited word) The lar, or, as it is sometimes denominated the gibbon.
1859 J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. (new ed.) I. 34 The Lar, or White-handed Gibbon.
Draft additions February 2005
lares and penates n. (a) Roman Mythology household gods; = sense 1a; (b) household belongings regarded as defining or embodying a person's home; prized possessions. Cf. penates n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > classical deity > [noun] > household god(s)
penatesa1522
house god1540
household god1564
lar1586
lares and penates1616
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > [noun] > home > essentials of home life
lares and penates1616
household god1818
1616 B. Jonson Entertainm. at Theobalds in Wks. (ed. 2) 888 A glorious place, figuring the Lararium, or seat of the household-gods, where both the Lares, and Penates, were painted.
1653 A. Ross Πανσεβεια xv. 556 Hence it appears that they were forced to have Deities in every place: at home they had their Lares and Penates.
1775 H. Walpole Lett. (1857) VI. 270 I am returned to my own Lares and Penates—to my dogs and cats.
1852 Frederick Douglass' Paper (Rochester, N.Y.) (Electronic ed.) 24 Dec. The steward is occasionally such a home-body, that he will establish his lares and penates on each side of the Atlantic.
1975 M. H. Wolf I'll take Back Road iv. 121 Most of my grandmother's lares and penates were ‘too nice to use’; the Baleek tea set,..and the complete sets of Emerson and Hawthorne, all were out of bounds.
1995 S. E. Grace Sursum Corda! I. 416 Lares and penates were beneficent Roman gods who watched over a household.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1902; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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n.1586