livid

livid [liv-id] ExamplesWord Origin adjective

1. having a discolored, bluish appearance caused by a bruise, congestion of blood vessels, strangulation, etc., as the face, flesh, hands, or nails.
2. dull blue; dark, grayish-blue.
3. enraged; furiously angry: Willful stupidity makes me absolutely livid.
4. feeling or appearing strangulated because of strong emotion.
5. reddish or flushed.
6. deathly pale; pallid; ashen: Fear turned his cheeks livid for a moment.

Origin of livid 1615–25; Latin līvidus black and blue, equivalent to līv(ēre) to be livid (akin to Welsh lliw color) + -idus -id4 Related formsliv·id·ly, adverbliv·id·ness, li·vid·i·ty, noun Examples from the Web for lividity Historical Examples of lividity

A kind of lividity spread over the picture, bleaching it of all colour.

In Mesopotamia

Martin Swayne

The lividity, yes; but one could think of that as simply the shadow of death.

The Trial of Callista Blake

Edgar Pangborn

Syncope may be distinguished from apoplexy by the absence of stertorous breathing and lividity of the visible mucous membranes.

Special Report on Diseases of the Horse

United States Department of Agriculture

Insensibility, stertorous breathing, lividity of face and body, and death from asphyxia.

Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

W. G. Aitchison Robertson

A great muddy cloud, like to the belly of a hydra, hung over ocean, and in places its lividity adhered to the waves.

The Man Who Laughs

Victor Hugo

British Dictionary definitions for lividity livid adjective

1. (of the skin) discoloured, as from a bruise or contusion
2. of a greyish tinge or colourlivid pink
3. informal angry or furious

Derived Formslividly, adverblividness or lividity, nounWord Origin for livid C17: via French from Latin līvidus, from līvēre to be black and blue Word Origin and History for lividity livid adj.

early 15c., “of a bluish-leaden color,” from Middle French livide and directly from Latin lividus “of a bluish color, black and blue,” figuratively “envious, spiteful, malicious,” from livere “be bluish,” earlier *slivere, from PIE *sliwo-, suffixed form of root *(s)leie- “bluish” (cf. Old Church Slavonic and Russian sliva “plum;” Lithuanian slywas “plum;” Old Irish li, Welsh lliw “color, splendor,” Old English sla “sloe”). The sense of “furiously angry” (1912) is from the notion of being livid with rage.

lividity in Medicine livid [lĭv′ĭd] adj.

1. Having a black-and-blue or a leaden or ashy-gray color, as in discoloration from a contusion, congestion, or cyanosis.