different between awful vs macabre
awful
English
Alternative forms
- awfull (archaic), aweful (obsolete), awefull (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, a?efull, equivalent to awe +? -ful. Compare Old English e?eful, e?efull (“terrifying; awful”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /???f?l/, /???f?l/
- (General American) IPA(key): /??f?l/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /??f?l/
- Rhymes: -??f?l
- Homophone: offal (some accents)
Adjective
awful (comparative awfuller or more awful, superlative awfullest or most awful)
- Very bad.
- My socks smell awful.
- We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
- Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
- an awful bonnet
- I have learnt an awful amount today.
- (now dated) Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
- 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter
- There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of the person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the perfect, stonelike stillness of the figure, that effectually checked the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated artist.
- 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter
- (now rare) Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143:
- And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful) […].
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143:
- (now rare) Struck or filled with awe.
- (obsolete) Terror-stricken.
- Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:frightening
Derived terms
- awfulness
- awfully
Translations
Adverb
awful (not comparable)
- (colloquial) Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.
- (colloquial, US, Canada) Very, extremely.
- That's an awful big house.
- She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.
- He was blubbering away something awful.
Translations
See also
- awfully
Further reading
- awful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- awful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
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macabre
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French macabre, whose etymology is uncertain, but possibly derives from the term danse macabre – the attribute of which was construed as an adjective – most commonly believed to be from corruption of the biblical name Maccabees; compare Latin Chorea Machabaeorum.
Another theory derives the term from Spanish macabro, from Arabic ????????? (maq?bir, “cemeteries”), plural of ?????????? (maqbara) or ?????????? (maqbura). Borrowing Arabic in plural form is not unusual: a similar case is the word magazine, derived from the plural ????? max?zin of the Arabic singular noun ???? maxzan "storehouse/depot/shop".
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /m??k??b??/, /m??k??b?(?)/
- (US) IPA(key): /m??k?b/, /m??k?b??/, /m??k?b?/
- Homophone: McCobb
Adjective
macabre (comparative more macabre, superlative most macabre)
- Representing or personifying death.
- 1941, George C. Booth, Mexico's School-made Society, page 106
- There are four fundamental figures. One is a man measuring and comparing his world […] In front of him is a macabre figure, a cadaver ready to be dissected. This symbolizes man serving mankind. The third figure is the scientist, the man who makes use of the information gathered in the first two fields of mensurable science.
- 1941, George C. Booth, Mexico's School-made Society, page 106
- Obsessed with death or the gruesome.
- 1993, Theodore Ziolkowski, "Wagner's Parsifal between Mystery and Mummery", in Werner Sollors (ed.), The Return of Thematic Criticism, pages 274-275
- 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.
- 1993, Theodore Ziolkowski, "Wagner's Parsifal between Mystery and Mummery", in Werner Sollors (ed.), The Return of Thematic Criticism, pages 274-275
- Ghastly, shocking, terrifying.
- 1927 [1938], H. P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature, Introduction
- 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.
- Synonyms: ghastly, horrifying, shocking, terrifying
- 1927 [1938], H. P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature, Introduction
Derived terms
- danse macabre
Translations
See also
- Danse Macabre on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
References
Anagrams
- carbeam
Catalan
Etymology
From French macabre
Adjective
macabre (feminine macabra, masculine and feminine plural macabres)
- macabre
French
Etymology
From Danse Macabre (“dance of death”), from Old French, usually said to be from Macabé (“Maccabee”), in reference to a mystery play depicting their slaughter. See Maccabee.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ma.kab?/
Adjective
macabre (plural macabres)
- macabre
Synonyms
- lugubre
Derived terms
- danse macabre
Further reading
- “macabre” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
References
Italian
Adjective
macabre
- feminine plural of macabro
Romanian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ma?ka.bre]
Adjective
macabre
- nominative feminine plural of macabru
- accusative feminine plural of macabru
- nominative neuter plural of macabru
- accusative neuter plural of macabru
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