Happy Halloween! The word of the day is
- Macabre -
pronounced [muh-kah-bruh, -kahb, -kah-ber]
pronounced [muh-kah-bruh, -kahb, -kah-ber]
adjective
2. of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.
3. of or suggestive of the allegorical dance of death.
Origin
1. gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible.
2. of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.
3. of or suggestive of the allegorical dance of death.
Origin
c.1430, from O.Fr. (danse) Macabré "(dance) of Death" (1376), probably a translation of M.L. (Chorea) Machabæorum, lit. "dance of the Maccabees" (leaders of the Jewish revolt against Syro-Hellenes, see Maccabees). The association with the dance of death seems
to be via vivid descriptions of the martyrdom of the Maccabees in the Apocryphal books. The abstracted sense of "gruesome" is first attested 1842 in Fr., 1889 in Eng.
Related Words
ghastly, grim, grisly, gruesome
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/macabre
Related Words
ghastly, grim, grisly, gruesome
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/macabre
