macabre

Borrowed from French macabre, whose etymology is uncertain.[1]

Most commonly believed to be from corruption of the biblical name Maccabees; compare French danse macabre, presumably from Latin Chorea Machabaeorum.

Possibly from Spanish macabro, from Arabic مَقَابِر‎ (maqābir, “tombs, cemeteries”), plural of مَقْبَرَة‎ (maqbara) or مَقْبُرَة‎ (maqbura) or of مَقْبَر‎ (maqbar), but the Arabic etymology is rejected by Romance linguists.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məˈkɑːbɹə/, /məˈkɑːbə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /məˈkɑb(ɹə)/, /məˈkɑbɚ/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Homophone: McCobb

macabre (comparative more macabre, superlative most macabre)

1. Representing or personifying death.
   • 1941, George C. Booth, Mexico's School-made Society, page 106

     There are four fundamental figures. One is a man measuring and comparing his world […] In front of him is a macabre figure, a cadaver ready to be dissected. This symbolizes man serving mankind. The third figure is the scientist, the man who makes use of the information gathered in the first two fields of mensurable science.

2. Obsessed with death or the gruesome.
   • 1993, Theodore Ziolkowski, "Wagner's Parsifal between Mystery and Mummery", in Werner Sollors (ed.), The Return of Thematic Criticism, pages 274-275

     Indeed, in the 1854 draft of Tristan he planned to have Parzival visit the dying knight, and both operas display the same macabre obsession with bloody gore and festering wounds.

3. Ghastly, shocking, terrifying.
   • 1927 [1938], H. P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature, Introduction

     The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from every-day life.

   Synonyms: ghastly, horrifying, shocking, terrifying

• danse macabre

• Danse Macabre on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• carbeam

macabre (feminine macabra, masculine and feminine plural macabres)

1. macabre

• IPA^(key): /ma.kabʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

macabre (plural macabres)

1. macabre

• lugubre

• danse macabre

• “macabre” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

macabre

1. Feminine plural of adjective macabro.

• IPA^(key): [maˈka.bre]

macabre

1. nominative feminine plural of macabru
2. accusative feminine plural of macabru
3. nominative neuter plural of macabru
4. accusative neuter plural of macabru