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 مَقَابِر ("cemeteries"), plural of مَقْبَرَة or مَقْبُرَة. Borrowing Arabic in plural form is not unusual: a similar case is the word magazine, derived from the plural مخازن maxāzin of the Arabic singular noun مخزن maxzan "storehouse/depot/shop".
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