Dictionary Definition
macabre adj : shockingly repellent; inspiring
horror; "ghastly wounds"; "the grim aftermath of the bombing"; "the
grim task of burying the victims"; "a grisly murder"; "gruesome
evidence of human sacrifice"; "macabre tales of war and plague in
the Middle ages"; "macabre tortures conceived by madmen" [syn:
ghastly, grim, grisly, gruesome]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Adjective
- representing or personifying death
- obsessed with death or the gruesome
- ghastly
Translations
representing or personifying death
obsessed with death
- Romanian: macabru
ghastly
- German: grausig
- Romanian: îngrozitor
Derived terms
Adjective
French
Pronunciation
/ma.kabʁ/|lang=frAdjective
Synonyms
Derived terms
Italian
Adjective
- Feminine plural of macabro
Romanian
Pronunciation
Adjective
macabreExtensive Definition
Macabre is a term applied to a type of artistic
or literary works,
characterized by a grim or ghastly
atmosphere. In these works, there is an emphasis on the details and
symbols of death. Macabre
themes are often preoccupations in the Goth
subculture. Themes are usually deliberate.
Etymology
The etymology of the word "macabre" is uncertain. According to Gaston Paris it first occurs in the form macabre in Jean le Fèvre's Respit de la mort (1376), Je fis de Macabré la danse, and he takes this accented form to be the true one, and traces it in the name of the first painter of the subject. The more usual explanation is based on the Latin name, Machabaeorum chorea (Dance of Maccabees). The seven tortured brothers, with their mother and Eleazar were prominent figures on this hypothesis in the supposed dramatic dialogues. Other connections have been suggested, as for example with St. Macarius, or Macaire, the hermit, who, according to Vasari, is to be identified with the figure pointing to the decaying corpses in the Pisan Triumph of Death, or with an Arabic word maqaber (مقابر), cemetery. Another claim is that the word "Macabre" comes from the two Hebrew words "מן הקבר " (Min Hakever), meaning "from the grave".See also
Notes
macabre in Spanish: Macabro
macabre in Italian: Iconografia della
morte
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
appalling, astounding, awe-inspiring,
awesome, awful, blue, cadaverous, corpselike, deadly, deathlike, deathly, deathly pale, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, eerie, eldritch, fearsome, fell, fiendish, formidable, frightening, frightful, ghastly, ghostlike, ghostly, ghoulish, gory, grim, grisly, grotesque, gruesome, haggard, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, livid, lurid, morbid, mortuary, pale, redoubtable, schrecklich, shocking, spookish, spooky, terrible, terrific, terrifying, tremendous, uncanny, unearthly, wan, weird