Macabre
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /məˈkÉ‘Ëbɹə/, /məˈkÉ‘ËbÉ™(ɹ)/
- US IPA: /məˈkɑb/, /məˈkɑbɚ/
- Homophones: McCobb
Origin
From French macabre, whose etymology is uncertain.
Arabic Linguistics Mailing List
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 مقابر (maqÄbir, "tombs, cemeteries"), plural of مقبرة or of مقبر, but the Arabic etymology is rejected by Romance linguists.
Possibly from Amharic "maqaber" for grave, but this etymology remains rejected by most linguistics.
Full definition of macabre
Adjective
macabre
- Representing or personifying death.
- 1941, George C. Booth, Mexico's School-made Society, page 106There 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.
- 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 274-275Indeed, 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.
- Ghastly, shocking, terrifying.
- 1927 1938, H. P. Lovecraft, , IntroductionThe 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) ghastly, horrifying, shocking, terrifying