I am working on a fantasy novel and I have thrown these in because it seemed right. What would be a good name for such a creature if it was a normal animal? Not very aggressive omnivore scavenger that is big enough to ride like a horse if that matters. I keep coming up with cutsie stuff like web hopper or spider-roo, and that seems wrong.
Octaroo? Kangoctaroo? Kangarachnid? Kangachnid? Arachnaroo? Araknaroo? Joeyrachnid?
Or just call it Steve.
A Macro Arachno.
I like arachnaroo :)
Web puncher?^^
@Seb - I will have one named Steve, but it is a whole breed. And while having a bunch of cowboy types ride steves has a certain comedic value, it feels like it could be distracting in a other wise dark and girtty work.
@L.W. - I wish I didn't love that name.
Wikipedia says the word kangaroo originated from gangurru. Maybe that's a starting point. Octgurru? Gangioped?
Gangurachnid? Could be the proper name, then use Web Hopper or something as the slang term the riders use.
I like Gangioped.
Marsupid, marsupnid, something like that?
Or you could go way out and not name it after the animals at all, but their (mythical?) creator?
Or if you have a language in your fantasy book, use that. Apparently Uruk-hai roughly means "orc folk" in "black speech" in middle earth.
Everyone thank you for the feedback, very helpful.
@Seb - There is just the one name. This isn't a very formal place, think more European refugees fleeing to an uninhabited North America. When they got there they found these things and named them. There hasn't been much of an academic community setup to give things a formal name.
@Thuggish - They are just animals that share he same creation (in both fact and the various creation stories) so it would be odd if only they had a name based on their creator when rabbits, birds, and fish doesn't. As for the language thing, that always seems like a very weird thing to do. I know lots of folks do it, but inventing a language to use words of it feels very weird to me.
Do they spin webs? In which case Web Hopper works quite well. Or just call them Hoppers? Apparently a group of kangaroos is called a mob, which is cool. I suppose if they are just named by settlers they can be called anything, not even referencing the spider element. Bouncers? Jumpers? Leggies? Leggers?
Yeah, they spend webs.
So would a group be a cluster mob? Because a group of spiders is a cluster.
An animal known for otherworldly feats of hopping is Phidippus putnami, a particularly lovely jumping spider. It would not be too big of a leap to imagine a much larger, multi-eyed creature, or worse, an entire genus of these creatures. A Brown Bush Hopper (Megaphidippus tetrami) perhaps?
(Photo by Thomas Shahan, CC-BY)
Perhaps you could look at derivations of spider names from mythology? Many cultures had spider gods and trickster spirits that were spiders. If they are refugees discovering the creature it would be natural from them to derive a name, based on their own pronunciation of a native word for the creatures - much as the Spanish word Huracán (hurricane) was likely derived from the Mayan storm god.
That is a terrifying, TERRIFYING idea. But I also like Arachnaroo. Is it like a splicing of two species, or an entirely new species that just sort of resembles a spider and a kangaroo.
@Bob: That picture scared the crap out of me. I had to scroll all fast and squint so the screen would be blurry.
@Strom - Since the rest of their language has a lot of assumed translation I don't go for having the one word that is phonetic. Just seems like a cop out.
@Bob - That is kind of their face on a kangerook body.
Well that's not creepy at all!
A cluster mob of web hopping arachnaroos certainly has a nice ring to it.
It's not even the nastiest-looking of the arachnids. And You're Welcome.
