| 释义 |
‖ macabre, a. (n.)|məˈkɑːbr|
Also 5 machabree, 7 machabray, 9 macaber.
[The form now usual represents F. macabre, an error for OF. macabré, whence the earlier Eng. forms.
The OF. word occurs first in Jean le Fèvre's Respit de la Mort (1376), where the author, if he be correctly interpreted by M. Gaston Paris (Romania XXIV. 131), claims to have written a work called la danse Macabré. The etymology of the word is obscure; so far as its form is concerned it might be a popular corruption of OF. Macabé = Maccabæus (an example of ‘Judas Macabré’ has been found), and in the 15th c. the ‘Dance of Death’ was called chorea Machabæorum in Latin (Du Cange cites a Besançon document of 1453), and Makkabeusdans in Du. M. Gaston Paris, however, thinks Macabré may have been the name of the artist who painted the picture which suggested the first poem on the subject.]
A. adj.
1. danse macabre, also in anglicized forms † dance of machabree, -bray (obs.), dance macaber: the Dance of Death (see dance n. 6 c).
14..Lydg. (title) The daunce of Machabree wherin is liuely expressed and shewed the state of manne, and howe he is called at vncertayne tymes by death, and when he thinketh least theron. Ibid. Prol. iii, I toke on me to translaten all, Out of the Frenche Machabrees daunce. 1598Stow Surv. 264 About this Cloyster was artificially & richly painted the dance of Machabray, or dance of death, commonly called the dance of Pauls. 1833J. Dallaway Disc. Archit. Eng. 137 The Dance of Macabre (Holbein's Dance of Death) was painted on the walls of the cloisters. 1851Longfellow Gold. Leg., Nativ. v. 12 Elsie. What are these paintings on the walls around us? Henry. The Dance Macaber! Elsie. What? Henry. The Dance of Death. 1870C. M. Yonge Caged Lion ix. 166 It is the Danse Macabre... It was invented as a warning to those of sinful life. 1938Oxf. Compan. Mus. 251/1 Danse macabre. The idea of Death as a dancer, or as a fiddling inciter to the dance, is very ancient. 1955Times 19 May 3/7 This danse macabre could only have been written by a poet. 1966Listener 17 Nov. 746/3 An Allegretto in G minor—a waltz-like danse macabre—which quotes the opening of the first cello concerto. 1974H. Waugh Parrish for Defence (1975) i. 5 The hours before dawn belonged to the souls of the dead... The restless whirling of their frenzies would be the Danse Macabre.
2. Characterized by the gruesomeness of the danse macabre (see 1): applied chiefly to literary or artistic productions.
1889Athenæum 14 Sept. 347/2 One Dance of Death circles uninterruptedly from end to end... The book is macabre, but unaffectedly macabre. 1892Speaker 29 Oct. 528/1 It was the material representation..of the ghastly, the grim, and the macabre which Webster intended. 1902Spectator 12 Apr. 557 Her habits are bizarre, even macabre.
B. As n. A macabre happening.
c1920T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) facing p. 233 It's just struck me that there's all the elements of a macabre in the passage which R. G. censored. 1948F. R. Leavis Great Tradition i. 19 The unfortunate macabre of the cab-journey.
Hence maˈcabrely adv.
1961A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo ii. 107 The black suit she wore, against which her white face..stared out so macabrely. 1964Economist 24 Oct. 365/2 This is where [it]..might become most macabrely relevant. 1968D. Francis Forfeit xiii. 163 What he said..was macabrely at variance with the way he said it. |