lividity

American  

[li-vid-i-tee] / lɪˈvɪd ɪ ti /

Sometimes lividness

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.

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Etymology

Origin of lividity

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

Example Sentences

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 • Feb. 25, 2020

The lividity of countenance, and the other concomitant symptoms, which presented themselves, gave decided indications of the morbid effects of this extraneous body.

From An Investigation into the Nature of Black Phthisis or Ulceration Induced by Carbonaceous Accumulation in the Lungs of Coal Miners by Makellar, Archibald

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 A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

After the ingestion of this herb in food he always had alarming attacks of sickness and pain in the abdomen, attended by swelling of the tongue and lips and lividity of the face.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)

Symptoms.—If poison concentrated, death may ensue at once; if gas diluted, or exposure only short, insensibility, lividity, hurried respiration, weak pulse, dilated pupils, elevation of temperature to 104°, tonic convulsions not unlike those of tetanus.

From Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology by Robertson, W. G. Aitchison (William George Aitchison )