macabre means representing or personifying death.
macabre is pronounced /ˌməˈkɑː.bɹə/.
Why “macabre” is a great word
Disturbing and horrifying because of involvement with or depiction of death and injury. From French macabre, of uncertain etymology; most commonly believed to be a corruption of Maccabees (as in danse macabre, influenced by Latin Chorea Machabaeorum, 'dance of the Maccabees'), referring to a 2nd-century BCE Jewish revolt with associated martyrdoms; an alternative theory derives it from Arabic maqābir ('cemeteries'). Unlike "gothic," which drapes its mystery in romantic gloom, or "grisly," which fixates on the visceral mess of decay, macabre conjures a more theatrical and pervasive morbidity. It is the skeletal grin of a memento mori ring, the choreographed horror of a danse macabre fresco, and the precise arrangement of bones in an ossuary's chandelier—a cultivated fascination with the terminus of all stories, where horror and artistry hold hands in a delicate, inescapable performance.
Etymology
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).
adj
- Representing or personifying death.
- Obsessed with death or the gruesome.e.g.“Indeed, 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.e.g.“The 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.”
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