livid-, liv- +

A form of respiratory failure in which the skin has a cyanotic or bluish discoloration because of a lack of oxygen in the blood.

A purplish color assumed by the lowest-lying parts of a recently dead body due to the downward flow and pooling of blood under the influence of gravity.

A deadly poisonous agaric; a large cap that is first white (livid or lead-colored) and then turns yellowish or tan.

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: "Seeing such cruelty makes me absolutely livid."
4. Feeling or appearing strangulated because of some strong emotion.
5. Reddish or flushed.
6. Deathly pale; pallid; ashen: "Fearing that the same accident could happen to her turned his face livid."

The history of livid might be well described as "mottled"

The Latin adjective lividus means "dull, greyish, or leaden blue", like the color of a dark bruise. The derivative adjective in French is livide, which was borrowed into English in the seventeenth century as livid.

Early use of livid was primarily in describing flesh discolored by or as if by a bruise; it functioned more or less as a synonym of black-and-blue.

A slight extension of meaning had by the end of the eighteenth century given it the sense of "ashen" or "pallid", as in describing the appearance of a corpse.

"Livid" eventually came to be used in this sense to characterize the complexion of a person pale with anger; such as, "livid with rage".

In the twentieth century, two further extensions of meaning have caused livid to both gain color and to lose it. In part, presumably, because of association with words like lurid and vivid, and in part because an angry person is at least as likely to be red-faced as pallid, livid has acquired the sense "reddish".

Its frequent occurrence in phrases like "livid with fury" has also given rise to a sense entirely unrelated to color, with livid now commonly functioning simply as a synonym of furious or enraged.

1. A state of fury so great that the face becomes discolored.
2. An unnatural lack of color in the skin; such as, from bruising, sickness, or emotional distress.

In a livid manner.

An unnatural color of the skin; such as, from bruising, sickness, anger, or other emotional distress.

Persistent cyanotic lesions on the extremities, associated with the cutaneous manifestations of oxysmal spasm of the digital arteries causing pallor (blanching) of the fingers and toes.

A purple coloration of dependent body parts, except in areas of contact pressure, appearing within one half to two hours after death, as a result of gravitational movement of blood within the vessels.

The coloration begins to form immediately after death and is usually perceptible within two hours following the cessation of the circulation of the blood in the body.