macabre

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Disturbing and gruesome, especially because it deals with death.

   The novel describes the murder in macabre detail.

2. 2
   adj

   Strangely fascinated by death or the gruesome.

   He has a macabre sense of humour and loves telling stories about graveyards.

Borrowed from French macabre, whose etymology is uncertain. Possibly from the term danse macabre, most commonly believed to be from corruption of the biblical name Maccabees; compare Latin Chorea Machabaeorum. Another theory derives the French term (through Spanish macabro) from Arabic مَقَابِر (maqābir, “cemeteries”), plural of مَقْبَرَة (maqbara) or مَقْبُرَة (maqbura).

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