The behavior, practices, or characteristics associated with ghouls; grave-robbing, grave-desecration, or ghoulish conduct.
Derived from 'ghoul' (from Arabic 'ghūl,' a demon that eats corpses) plus the English suffix '-ery' (meaning practice or place of practice, as in 'slavery' or 'archery'). The Arabic word entered English through tales like those in the Arabian Nights.
Medieval and Victorian 'ghoulery'—people actually exhuming and selling corpses, or using them for anatomy lessons—was shockingly common and only stopped when laws made it illegal, which is why 'body snatcher' was a real profession.
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