atramentous
Sep. 15th, 2025 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordatramentous (a-truh-MEN-tuhs) - adj., black as ink, inky.
Also atramental, but that seems to be even less common. This goes back to the 1640s, a time when a lot of words were being imported into English directly from Latin, in this case ātrāmentum, a liquid used to blacken, which could be (and often was) ink but also a dye/stain for leather or wood, from ātrāre, to blacken, from āter, black, ultimately from PIE *h₂eh₁ter-, fire, so I'm guessing there's a sense of burnt hiding in that gap. Note that ātrāmentum also gave Middle English atrament, black ink. Me, I'm pondering possible uses of atramentous in certain styles of fantasy or horror writing.
---L.
Also atramental, but that seems to be even less common. This goes back to the 1640s, a time when a lot of words were being imported into English directly from Latin, in this case ātrāmentum, a liquid used to blacken, which could be (and often was) ink but also a dye/stain for leather or wood, from ātrāre, to blacken, from āter, black, ultimately from PIE *h₂eh₁ter-, fire, so I'm guessing there's a sense of burnt hiding in that gap. Note that ātrāmentum also gave Middle English atrament, black ink. Me, I'm pondering possible uses of atramentous in certain styles of fantasy or horror writing.
---L.
