livid means having a dark, bluish appearance. It carries an Arena rating of 1641, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, livid ranks #460 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,064 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,424 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,989 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
livid is pronounced /ˈlɪvɪd/.
Why “livid” is a great word
Having a dark, bluish or leaden color, as from bruising, or being so consumed by anger that one’s complexion turns deathly pale. From the Latin līvidus (“dull blue, grayish-blue, discolored by bruising”), from the verb livēre (“to be bluish”). Unlike furious, which suggests a general, intense rage, or pallid, which denotes a simple, often fearful, paleness, livid is the precise hue of a thwarted passion, a bruise blooming on both skin and spirit. It is the sickly, leaden stain of a forgotten plum, the ashen face of a parent receiving terrible news, the purple dusk of a storm that has broken silently within—the color of fury when it has chilled into something permanent.
Etymology
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”).
adj
- Having a dark, bluish appearance.
- Pale, pallid.
- So angry that one turns pale; very angry; furious; liverish.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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