Macabre
/məˈkɑːbɹə/noun
Grimly disturbing or gruesome, especially in a way that is strangely vivid or theatrical.
Did you know?The word is tied to the medieval French phrase danse macabre, the “dance of death,” a ritualized image of skeletons leading the living to the grave.
Etymological Timeline
14th Century
French
macabre
“Pertaining to the Dance of Death; grim, deathly”
14th Century
French
danse macabre
“The Dance of Death, a medieval allegory in which death summons people of all ranks”
Late 14th Century
Medieval Latin
chorea Machabaeorum
“The dance of the Maccabees, a phrase once used for a death-dance motif”
Late 14th Century
Latinized Biblical/Medieval Tradition
Machabaei
“The Maccabees, a Jewish family of martyrs whose story was associated by medieval writers with martyrdom and death”
19th Century
English
macabre
“Grimly horrifying; gruesome in a death-tinged way”