I’ve created a new creature for a roleplaying game adventure I’m writing, and I’m wondering if I got the Latin name I chose for it correct. The creature is a black, inky ooze, and the English-to-Latin dictionary I found online showed me the word, atramentum. Is this the best word choice?
This is probably going to be a published adventure, so I appreciate any help you can give.
My dictionary’s description for “atramentum” is “black; inking” so that sounds pretty good, logic wise. However, "atramentum doesn’t sound particularly scary. It’s probably better to go for something a little more “poetic” (ie, nonsensical :)) that sounds a bit scarier. Some suggestions (or just possibilities)
slime (noun) - limus
slimy (adj.) - limosus, mucosus
ooze (verb) - manare, stillare
ozze (noun) - no entry
goo (noun) - no entry
muck (noun) - no entry (some dictionary this is, eh? :))
gunk - no entry
sludge - no entry
Latin seem’s pretty hard up on words for slimy things.
Some other things I found looking for “dark”:
“darkling” (whatever that is) - obscurus
dark (mist) - caligo
darkness - tenebrae (it’s a plural, though, which might pose a problem)
blacking - atramentum (and it pops up again!)
Had a look at tenebrae in the latin section, has the following meanings: darkness, night, unconsciousness, death, blindness; dungeon, haunt, the lower world; ignorance, obscurity.
My suggestion would just be to pop in some neat sounding english words that are sort of similar and see what comes out. “Tenebrae” sounds pretty good to me, though. Maybe not the best literal translation but I doubt the first discoverers of your disgusting, horrible creature wouldn’t have exactly been giving the thing an autopsy so they could accurately name it 
I don’t know. I think atramentum sounds pretty scary. At least, as scary as balrog or gorgon.
But those words have history man! It’s tough to come up with a new, scary name! I mean, those movie people must have spent seconds coming up with “tooth fairy”!
OK, actually, atramentum doesn’t look awful, but it still brings to mind images of a periodic table.
Thanks so much for your help, guys!