lividity

[ li-vid-i-tee ]

noun

1. a discolored, bluish appearance caused by a bruise, pooling of blood due to congestion of blood vessels, strangulation, etc.:

   When the dead person is lying on their back, lividity will form on the buttocks, back, or backs of the legs.

2. a grayish or ashen appearance of the face; pallor:

   The traditional ghost image usually involves a certain paleness of the face—a corpselike lividity.

3. furious anger:

   When the generator they’d ordered arrived late and then failed to work, her lividity knew no bounds.

4. a reddish appearance of the face, as from strong emotion or embarrassment:

   I was on the shore with my parents, watching the sky flush scarlet with a hue like lividity rising to an angry face.

Word History and Origins

Origin of lividity¹

First recorded in 1400–50; from Late Latin lividitas, equivalent to Latin līvid(us) “black and blue” + -itās -ity ( def ); livid ( def )

Example Sentences

“I don’t see anything on the back of her head. You can see her lividity, from how she was laying and how she died. I don’t feel any fractures to her skull.”

From Los Angeles Times

She inspected the woman’s body to see whether her lividity patterns, which indicate the position of the body at the time of death, matched the husband’s story.

From New York Times

And the body is flaccid and lividity is fixed.

From New York Times

Vibices and extensive ecchymoses of the surface are of much more grave import, and in cases where fatal sinking is threatened they may appear accompanying a purplish lividity of the countenance.

From Project Gutenberg

His motionless face has the lividity of wax; his lips are violet and half open.

From Project Gutenberg