(mə-käˈbrə, mə-käbˈ, -käˈbər)
adjective- Suggesting the horror of death and decay; gruesome: macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle Ages. See Synonyms at ghastly.
- Constituting or including a representation of death.
Related Forms:
Word History: The word
macabre is an excellent example of a word formed with reference to a specific context that has long since disappeared for everyone but scholars.
Macabre is first recorded in the phrase
Macabrees daunce in a work written around 1430 by John Lydgate.
Macabree was thought by Lydgate to be the name of a French author, but in fact he misunderstood the Old French phrase
Danse Macabre, “the Dance of Death,” a subject of art and literature. In this dance, Death leads people of all classes and walks of life to the same final end. The
macabre element may be an alteration of
Macabe, “a Maccabee.” The Maccabees were Jewish martyrs who were honored by a feast throughout the Western Church, and reverence for them was linked to reverence for the dead. Today
macabre has no connection with the Maccabees and little connection with the Dance of Death, but it still has to do with death.
