Macabre means gruesome and grim in the way it dwells on death. A macabre joke.
It describes a tale, a scene or a joke rather than a person's turn of mind. The word probably comes from the medieval dance of death, which is exactly the right image.
1adjectivemacabreGruesome and grim in the way it dwells on death, said of a tale, a joke, or a scene rather than of a person's turn of mind.
“The macabre detail in the last chapter is what everybody remembers.”
macabre is a quality.
French macabre is of uncertain origin and probably comes from danse macabre, the medieval dance of death.
French
macabre
English, today
macabre
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 (“cemeteries”), plural of مَقْبَرَة or مَقْبُرَة.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA