livid
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₃y-
Proto-Indo-European *(s)lih₃-wó-der.
Proto-Italic *slīwēō
Latin līveō
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der.
Proto-Italic *-iðos
Latin -idus
Latin līvidusder.
Middle French lividebor.
Middle English livid
English livid
From Middle English livid, livide, from Old French livide, from Latin līvidus (“bluish, livid; envious”), from līveō (“be of a bluish color or livid; envy”), from Proto-Italic *sliwēō, from Proto-Indo-European *sliwo-, suffixed form of *(s)leh₃y- (“bluish”). See also Old English slā (“sloe”), Welsh lliw (“splendor, color”), Old Irish li, Lithuanian slyvas (“plum”), and Russian and Old Church Slavonic слива (sliva, “plum”).
Inflected forms:
form: livider
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more livid
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: lividest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most livid
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Having a dark, bluish appearance.
pos: adj
examples: Jean Raynaud, cook, aged about twenty years, of a melancholy temperament, had his whole body covered with a purple livid colour, and a bubo under his left axilla; […] His lungs were covered with little livid ſpots, ſoft and pliant, without any hardneſs in their ſubſtance. The liver was larger and harder than ordinary, and was alſo full of livid purple ſpots; […]
In [J. M. W.] Turner's distinctive work, colour is scarcely acknowledged unless under influences of sunshine. The sunshine is his treasure; his lividest gloom contains it; his greyest twilight regrets it, and remembers.
When all the surroundings were thus rendered as brilliant as possible, so that the corpse looked more livid and ghastly by comparison, I seated myself once more, and prepared to read the last message of the dead.
The house seemed unfamiliar in the dark stormy light; the red and purple glass of the front door made livid bruises on the linoleum; the green chenille curtain was like a veil of seaweed.
gloss: Pale, pallid.
pos: adj
examples: Ulcers having had their beginning during a Diſeaſe, or before it, growing livid, pale or dry, plainly indicate the proximity of Death, their livid or pale colour being not only the ſign of Cholerick, or Atrabiliary humours cauſing them, but alſo manifeſting an extinction of the natural heat.
15939 Cap somew[hat] umbon[ate] smooth livid pale, Lamel[læ] annexed flesh-colored, Stipes sold smooth somew[hat] bulbous. [Describing a species of fungus.]
I'm livid; a deathly pale light floods my face and I emanate a different smell. Charlie doesn't stop to analyse these subtle changes.
gloss: So angry that one turns pale; very angry; furious; liverish.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose—a supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were supposed.
Livider and livider Serjianni grew as the Princess let him have it. When she stopped, he growled. "Your Highness knows him better than I do," and he stalked off up the stairs.
“Gave us a jolly good run. Viewed him across Gamley Heath, drew Meddington Big Wood, and then we lost him. Daddy was livid.”
Related words: scorch
Derived words: lividity
lividly
lividness
Translations: