From Old Frenchmacacre, macecle(“slaughterhouse, butchery”), from Medieval Latinmazacrium(“massacre, slaughter, killing; the head of a newly killed stag”), from Middle Low German*matskelen(“to massacre”), frequentive of matsken, matzgen(“to cut, hew”), from Proto-Germanic*maitaną(“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European*mei-(“small”).