macabre French · revision 15736

+ {{infobox|confidence=disputed|formation=derivation|attested=1376, Jean Le Fèvre, Respit de la Mort|origins=la Maccabaeus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ma.kabʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''macabre''' (plural macabres)^(Wiktionary)

+ Middle French ''danse Macabré'', ''la macabrée danse''^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989); ''macabre'' is a misreading of ''Macabré'' first printed in 1811 (or 1832).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It comes from the phrase [[inh|frm|danse Macabré]] “dance of death”, in which the name was misread as “macabre” in the 19th century.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989) The origin of “Macabré” is disputed.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|6/1, 1b) The TLFi and Rey take it for a variant of the biblical name [[Macchabée]], from [[la|Maccabaeus]]: “Judas Macabrés” is found about 1190 and 1250.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) Bloch and Wartburg note that a Latin [[m|la-med|chorea Machabaeorum|t=dance of the Maccabees]] is recorded in 1453 for the dance of death, but that the link with the stories of the Maccabees has not been cleared up.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873) Rey sets out four ways the name may have reached the dance: from a painter or a poet called Macabré, or from the Maccabees as figures of the dead.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Eastern origins have also been proposed, from [[ar|مقبرة|tr=maqbara|t=cemetery]] or [[syc|meqabberēy|t=gravediggers]];^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) the TLFi and Rey find them unfounded,^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) while the Grand Robert still cites the Syriac word after Dauzat.^(Grand Robert 2005) The GLLF suggests a surname, since the first painted dances of death come from the region of Basel, where the name Macabré is well attested.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Jean Le Fèvre writes in his ''Respit de la Mort'' (1376) ''Je fis de Macabré la dance'', probably “I composed the dance of Macabré”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the 15th century the ''danse Macabré'' was a painted or carved allegory of Death leading people of every rank in a round; such paintings decorated the Cemetery of the Innocents in Paris in the 1420s.^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)^(TLFi) After 1433 ''aller à la danse de Macabré'' meant “to die”, and Cotgrave (1611) still glosses ''danse Macabré'' as “death”.^(TLFi)

+

+ Once misread as ''danse macabre'', the word became an adjective for anything to do with death and corpses (1842–1843, Gautier), and so “gloomy, sinister”^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007); ''le macabre'' as a noun is from 1855.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1190 – ''Judas Macabrés'' “Judas Maccabaeus”.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1376 – ''Je fis de Macabré la dance'' (Jean Le Fèvre).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1420s – ''La danse Macabré'' is painted at the Innocents in Paris.^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+ * 1453 – Latin ''chorea Machabaeorum''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+ * 1611 – Cotgrave records ''Danse Macabré''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1811 – The misreading ''Danse Macabre'' (Champollion-Figeac).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1842–1843 – The adjective “relating to death, gloomy”.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1855 – ''Le macabre'' as a noun (Goncourt).^(TLFi)

+ * 1878 – First recorded by the Académie.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # ''Danse macabre'': the medieval [[m|en|allegory]] of Death leading people of every rank in a round dance; a [[m|en|danse macabre]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # Having to do with [[m|en|corpse|alt=corpses]], skeletons or death; [[m|en|macabre]]: ''humour macabre''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # Gloomy, [[m|en|sinister]].^(Larousse)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''Le macabre'': the macabre, as a genre or style.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Macchabée]]

+ * [[en|macabre]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}