I have tried all afternoon to LIU without success - is there single word to describe a (pardon the pun) morbid fascination with death? All the sources I come across point to necrophilia or similar, but these words all imply a sexual obsession that is not what I am looking for. It's more the sort of fascination with, and being entertained by, all things morbid that I am trying to describe. Is there a word for it?

Reading just the strap of your post, I would have picked morbidity, but presumably you are looking for something else?

"Mortaphilia"?

Mortaphilia?

And I thought that's what the barman asked, just before you slide off the stool

> morbidity

I would have gone for this too. I that the expression "morbid fascination with death" gets countless hits on a google search, so must be a popular phrase.

I suppose the problem with morbidity is that it is also a medical term to do with incidence of disease and is used increasingly by the press as we all become hooked on that other modern preocupation "morbid fascination with healthcare".

morbid fascinations? man, have you ever come to the right place...

taphophile - one who loves cemetaries and funerals (see Harold, in "Harold and Maude")
thanatopsis - a meditation upon death

oh, and lest I forget...
witzelsucht - a morbid tendency to pun, make poor jokes, and tell pointless stories (hi teD!!)

thanatomania

> Mortaphilia?

>And I thought that's what the barman asked, just before you slide off the stool

I wish I'd said that!!

Wish it was being said to me right now.

I could reply, "Hearse to you"

>I could reply, "Hearse to you"

Just don't cry in my bier! Such a grave development that would be.

Ted goes away, coffin in his windingsheet

A big "thank you" for all your reponses, especially TEd for thanatomania, and maverick for your mortaphilia joke. That was an excellent way to lighten the morbid tone before the thread became moribund. The humorous end to the thread also suggested a new depth of meaning behind the age old cry of the failed stand-up comic: "I'm dyin' out here"

Are we now saying that this thread is dead?

>Ted goes away, coffin in his windingsheet<

AS my grandmother always said,
It wasn't the cough that carried 'im off.
But the coffin they carried 'im off in.

Now what was that about sentences ending in prepositions???

we've danced all around it:

thanatophilia - an undue fascination with death [OED]

In reply to:

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one who loves cemetaries and funerals (see Harold, in "Harold and Maude")

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Another fan? At last. Let me herald this great day by getting all maudlin over the fact that I haven't seen this work of cinemtographic genius in years.


Bingley

Thanks for bringing this film to my attention. I must have missed it during my "tryingtobeafilmbuff" years.

It looks like lots of other people like it too. It gets an average of ***** at eopinions.com

http://www.epinions.com/ep?temp=allrev&res=mvie_mu-1009241&rt=mr