The story
- Arabic · derived fromمَقَابِر“cemeteries”
- Spanish · derived frommacabro
- French · borrowed frommacabre
- English todaymacabre
Borrowed from 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 (maqābir, “cemeteries”), plural of مَقْبَرَة (maqbara) or مَقْبُرَة (maqbura).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.