different between horrid vs macabre

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin horridus (“rough, bristly, savage, shaggy, rude”), from horrere (“to bristle”). See horrent, horror, ordure.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h???d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?h???d/

Adjective

horrid (comparative horrider or more horrid, superlative horridest or most horrid)

1. (archaic) Bristling, rough, rugged.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen, I-vii-31, 2007, A. C. Hamilton (editor), Spenser: The Faerie Qveene, Revised 2nd Edition, page 98,

     His haughtie Helmet, horrid all with gold, // Both glorious brightnesse and great terror bredd.

   • 1637, John Milton, Comus (A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634), 1852, Henry John Todd (editor), The Poetical Works of John Milton, Volume 4, 5th Edition, page 113,

     Yea there, where very Desolation dwells, / By grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades, / She may pass on with unblench'd majesty, / Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.

   • 1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Aeneis, Book IX, 1779, The Works of the English Poets, Volume 18: Dryden's Virgil: Volume II, page 248,

     Horrid with fern, and intricate with thorn, / Few paths of human feet, or tracks of beasts, were worn.

2. Causing horror or dread.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frightening

   • 1606 William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, IV-iii, 1843, The Works of Shakespere, Volume 2: Tragedies, unnumbered page,

     Not in the legions / Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damned / In evils, to top Macbeth.

   • 1611 William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain, IV-ii, 1821, The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare, Volume V, page 369,

     Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood, / that we the horrider may seem to those / Which chance to find us;

   • 1622, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, The Sea Voyage, V-iv, 1866, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, Volume 2, page 327,

     Set out the altar! I myself will be / The priest, and boldly do those horrid rites / You shake to think on.

   • 1885 Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien, 1870, The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate, page 166,

     What say ye then to fair Sir Percivale, / And of the horrid foulness that he wrought,

3. Offensive, disagreeable, abominable, execrable.
   • 1668 October 23, Samuel Pepys, Diary, 1858, Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, F.R.S., Volume 4, 6th Edition, page 39,

     My Lord Chief Justice Keeling hath laid the constable by the heels to answer it next Sessions: which is a horrid shame.

   • 1714, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto IV, 1836, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., page 68,

     Methinks already I your tears survey, / Already hear the horrid things they say,

Usage notes

• According to OED, horrid and horrible were originally almost synonymous, but in modern use horrid is somewhat less strong and tending towards the "offensive, disagreeable" sense.

Synonyms

• abominable
• alarming
• appalling
• awful
• dire
• dreadful
• frightful
• harrowing
• hideous
• horrible
• revolting
• shocking
• terrific

Translations

References

• horrid in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• horrid in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

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)

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

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)

1. 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)

1. 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

1. feminine plural of macabro

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ma?ka.bre]

Adjective

macabre

1. nominative feminine plural of macabru
2. accusative feminine plural of macabru
3. nominative neuter plural of macabru
4. accusative neuter plural of macabru